Outcast Town?
by I Lost My Buh-Lance
Summary: After having a severe car accident, Pops goes missing. In addition to this, Mordecai and Rigby need to find him, and they stumble upon a bizarre parallel world called Outcast Town. Could Pops be hidden somewhere in Outcast Town?
1. Where's Pops?

_Author's Notes: This is my first story involving chapters with the Regular Show archive. I certainly hope you guys enjoy it. I disclaim Regular Show and its characters, but Outcast Town belongs to me._

_**Outcast Town(?)**_

**Chapter One: Where's Pops?**

**The universe is a vast and limitless expansion of galaxies, dust, gas, clouds, and trillions among trillions of stars. It is an amazing sight to behold, and we have barely even scratched the surface of what it contains, and what it may and may not.**

**However, unknown to the scientific principles of the universe, is a very bizarre land filled to the brim with odd creatures and people. It is a place that seemingly could only be visited in someone's dreams and imagination.**

**No ordinary human has been able to visit this place, and its existence remains a mystery to the people of modern society. This place is known only to those who live in it, and it cannot be seen by the naked eye alone. This unusual location only "reveals" itself to those it "chooses".**

**The locals who live there give it a very specific name, a name that suits this mysterious and bizarre area very fittingly. It is called, "Outcast Town". **

"**Outcast Town" itself has very strange powers, and it does very unique things to whoever enters inside of its gates. It is unknown if these "powers" it wields is magical or not.**

**The people of Outcast Town lived in peace and harmony, and were innocent of the escalating violence and destruction that occurred and grew every day in our world. **

**But soon, Outcast Town's tranquility and solitude would be disrupted, for three aliens from the outside world would soon come and cause such a calamity. These three heroes would learn some of the dark secrets contained within Outcast Town's boundaries, and leave their mark on its walls forever.**

**Well…maybe not "heroes" exactly…**

"_Can you see them, Rigby? Are they still after us?"_

"_Yeah, dude," _replied Rigby, gazing backwards with a pair of binoculars in his paws_, "they're right behind us!"_

"_Oh, my!" gasped _Pops, clutching onto the back seats of the golf-cart with both hands,_ "They're going to tear us apart! Oh, Rigby, why did you have to go and eat that circus midget's pineapple?"_

**Mordecai, Rigby, and Pops had gotten themselves into some very deep trouble…**

As it turns out, Rigby had mailed in an essay he had written to their local city hall about how ice cream trucks should play Queen's "_Another One Bites the Dust"_ as their siren rather than "_Pop Goes the Weasel"_ or _"Turkey in the Straw"_.

As fate would have it, his essay had won the contest, and the grand-prize was three tickets to their local carnival.

Rigby invited Mordecai, and he reluctantly agreed to go (mainly because of his phobia of clowns, but the blue-jay concluded that he needed to face his fears sooner or later).

Rigby had also tried to invite Skips, but he had plans (something about being dared to watch old re-runs of Blues Clues in a beaver suit, or at least that's Rigby thought he said).

Then he tried to invite Benson, but the ol' grouchy gumball was occupied with his own personal errands (AKA beating his cousin's kill streak in Call of Duty Black Ops).

So, that only left one person: Pops.

The lollipop-headed man was so excited to visit the circus. He absolutely adored watching clowns performing their comical routines, acrobats leaping great-heights and performing somersaults in mid-air, elephants running around in circles in fear when a mouse sprinted by their colossal feet.

But, before they entered the large colossal tent, Rigby noticed a delicious, appealing pineapple just sitting there on a table, all by itself with no one around to devour it.

The ravenous raccoon licked his lips as he approached it, and he tore it apart with his teeth, tasting all the delicious, natural juices contained within the pineapple.

That's when the pineapple's owner, a circus midget, witnessed Rigby snacking on his delicious, prized snack that he had grew and raised himself.

The circus midget summoned all of his circus midget-friends, and began giving chase to Rigby. Rigby, obviously fearing the wrath of the enraged circus midgets, he began to run for his life.

Mordecai and Pops noticed the midgets and began running right along with Rigby, trying to escape from that accursed carnival as fast as humanly (or blue-jay, raccoon, and lollipop-headed humanly) possible.

Unfortunately for the three of them, these midgets weren't joking around. These guys were out for blood, and they weren't going to let them get away _that _easily. Just when Rigby, Mordecai, and Pops thought the coast was clear, they heard a small, but fierce motor coming up fast behind their golf-cart.

They all whirled around to see a miniature clown-car tearing up the road, ready to ram and destroy the three on the spot.

**And this is where they are now, trying to outrun crazed, angry circus from cutting up their bodies into little, tiny, bite-sized pieces and eating them.**

Mordecai was sweating madly as he had his thin, stick-like black foot on the gas and he turned the steering violently from left to right, trying to keep the cart steady on the road in this dense, lonely forest. They could all hear the angered cries and insults being hurled from their little colorful car.

"_Mordecai,_" shrieked Rigby, staring at them with those binoculars, "_We're not gonna make it!"_

"_Oh yeah we are, Rigby_," declared the confident driver, as he swirled the steering wheel violently to the left, "_We're not gonna get caught by those crazy circus freaks!_"

"_I'd say 'this is fun', but,"_ declared Pops, hiding underneath Rigby's seat in nervousness, "_but I think you're travelling a teensy-weensy bit too fast, Mordecai!"_ Mordecai didn't even bother looking back at the nervous lolli-man, but he replied, _"Sorry, Pops. I got no choice here!"_

Mordecai took another violent swerve to the right, knocking Pops over and Rigby's head dangled outside the window. The blue-jay was travelling at such a high speed, that Rigby's eyes and cheeks were being pulled all the way backwards.

With his eyes popping out madly, the raccoon managed to turn his eyes towards the back of their cart, and noticed a midget aiming what appeared to be a purple, polka-dotted bazooka at their cart.

Rigby gasped, and tried to cry out, "_Mordecai, Mordecai! Turn around! Turn around!"_

But Mordecai was far too focused on the road to pay any attention to Rigby's pointless ramblings. Not only that, but Rigby's voice sounded too muffled, since the wind against his mouth pushed his tongue up against the roof of his mouth, making his words distort and nonsensical.

Finally, the angry midget pulled the trigger on his retarded-looking bazooka, and an old banana peel dotted with bruise-spots went flying out of its large barrel.

Rigby's bloodshot eyes widened, and he shoved his head forcibly back inside of the golf-cart and screamed, "_Mordecai, stop the freakin' car!"_

Without even looking at him, Mordecai shrieked, "_Are you nuts? They're gonna eat us alive, dude!"_ Mordecai swerved violently to the right, setting the cart right in front of the banana.

Rigby's eyes widened in horror, and he pointed at the road, and screamed, "_BANANA!"_

"_Huh?_"

Mordecai turned his head towards the road, and his large eyes landed on the lethal banana peel lying there on the road, ready to slip up anyone who proceeded to go in its path.

Suddenly, all three of them began screaming maniacally, eyes wide and bloodshot and their mouth three times their normal sizes.

Mordecai turned the steering with all his might towards the left. The cart's wheels squealed like wild, angry pigs as it turned its entire body fiercely to the side of the road.

The road was designed like a wavy line, and it was parallel to a mountainside's cliff (a very dangerous place to make wild turns as Mordecai was). All that was down there was nothing but a lonely forest of pine trees and fog.

Luckily for them, however, it was not very high, but a fall from that height would still hurt.

Mordecai blinked twice, and he noticed that he had just missed the banana. He looked back at it from the rear-view mirror, and saw that it was just lying there.

The blue-jay breathed a sigh of relief, and he was about to interrogate if everybody was ok, when suddenly, he hit a large rock was that conveniently (at least for the midgets) right in front of the road.

However, it did _not_ just stop the cart. The sudden halt sent them _flying _out of the car, Rigby, Pops, and Mordecai, right over the gray road railings.

Mordecai, Pops, and Rigby all screamed as they went tumbling down into the sea of pine trees below. All one could hear while they were falling was "Ow! Ooh! Oof! Ouch!"

The branches from the trees were cutting and poking them while they spiraled down into the forest.

Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity of torture from the tree's branches, they all managed to hit the floor…but not appropriately. They landed very hard, and this, of course, lowered their stamina.

Mordecai landed first, and he landed right on his stomach. The impact had knocked all the wind out of his stomach, and he was very dizzy at this point. On his stomach, half-knocked out, he stared up at the trees, and saw Rigby and Pops flopping down the branches like fishes on a fisherman's deck.

The two landed on the grassy floor with a thud, leaving them both dizzy and inadequate to function, just as Mordecai was.

Mordecai's vision began to blur, and his strength slowly withered away. The last thing he remembered before passing out was the laughter of the midgets, and one of them cried out, _"Serves you right, losers!"_

**Six hours later…**

Dusk had begun to engulf the late-afternoon sky, and the area had begun to grow silent and eerie, as all forests do when the sun sets.

It had also begun to grow a tad cold, and little animals scampered around the bodies of the three weirdoes.

A milky-white fog had just scarcely begun to roll in, suddenly making the trees' silhouettes to appear like giant monsters in the mist.

However, despite the silence and seemingly lonely appearance, the forest was not alone on this night.

A tall and slim shadowy figure observed the three of them on the floor, unconscious and non-living. The only thing that could clearly be seen was this figure's glowing red eyes. Their crimson, glowing eyes seemed to be squinted as they stared at the three bodies.

Slowly, they approached the three unconscious groundskeepers. Their footsteps crunched the leaves on the floor as they got closer and closer.

This figure also seemed to be clutching something in their hand. It appeared to be a red, ruby-like gem.

Finally, this tall, obscured person stood right over their bodies. They crouched down and got on one knee as they seemed to inspect their bodies.

First, they started with Mordecai's body.

The figure picked up Mordecai's arm, inspecting it carefully for something. The figure then put the blue-jay's arm back on the floor, and shook his head. Apparently, Mordecai did not fit whatever this figure's necessities were.

The figure then stood up, and approached Rigby's lifeless, furry body. The shadowy figure got down on one knee again, and this time, he opened one of the raccoon's eyes. Rigby's eye was surrounded by veins and appeared to be staring off into space. The figure peered into his eye carefully, as if searching for something.

But the stranger simply shook his head slowly once again, and gently closed Rigby's eye.

Next, they approached jolly old Pops.

The figure strode over to the jolly man and crouched down once again, and began to feel his round, lollipop-head. The shadow seemed to pat it down, almost as if feeling if it were flawed.

This time, the figure didn't shake their head and walk away. In fact, this time, they grinned. Their smile was a pearly-white one with razor sharp teeth. The figure put their hands around Pops' stomach and picked him up off the floor with ease, and placed his body on their left shoulder with his legs and arms dangling in mid-air.

The shadowy stranger then began to slowly saunter away with Pops, leaving Mordecai and Rigby's bodies in the cold, lonely, and heavily-fogged forest.

The obscure shadow, while striding away with Pops on his shoulder and still holding that shining red gem, quietly uttered, _"This guy will make a great experiment for Queen Pyra…"_

Slowly, the figure entered the ghostly-white fog, with theirs and Pops' silhouettes shrinking and fading away inside of the vast forest…

**One hour later…**

Mordecai's feathery fingers had finally begun to twitch after seven, long, grueling hours of being unconscious on the muddy and grassy floor. He groaned and clenched his teeth as he painstakingly got up to his knees.

He rubbed the back of his neck sorely and he rubbed his eyes. He rubbed a sore spot on top of his head, and uttered, "Aw, man…what the 'H' just happened?"

The blue-jay opened one of his eyes, and he began carefully analyzing the area.

Silence…fog…trees…shadows…eeriness.

Mordecai opened both of his eyes, and he stood up tall, and he slowly swung his head around, observing more of the same.

"Whoa," he exclaimed to himself while gazing up at the cliff where they had flown off, "I actually _survived _that?"

The logical blue-jay then arched his eyebrow, and then he turned his head, and cried out, "_Hey…where's Rigby?"_

Mordecai began searching around frantically for his little nocturnal buddy, when fortunately, his eyes landed on him, on the floor with his tongue hanging out.

Mordecai dashed over to him and he got down on his knees, and he shook Rigby with one hand.

"Hey, Rigby," Mordecai whispered, trying to see if his friend would wake up, "Are you ok? Dude?" After a few more seconds of shaking, one of Rigby's eyes popped open, and his eye began moving frantically up, down, left, and right.

The raccoon sat up perfectly straight, almost like a rake would if someone would step on its teeth, and stupidly asked, "Breakfast time?"

Mordecai stood up and replied, "No, dude." Rigby rubbed his eyes while still on the floor, and he asked, "Dude, where the 'H' are we?"

"I dunno man," answered the blue-jay, turning around and staring back up at the cliff from where they had flown off while evading those deranged, insane midgets from the circus. "But right now, I'm just glad we're, like, _alive!"_

Rigby began scanning the area around them as well. He stood up and stretched his arms, and asked, "Wow, dude, how long have we been out for?"

"Hmm…I dunno. Let me check." Mordecai reached into his "feather-pocket", and pulled out his iphone. Just as he was about to turn it on, he cried out, "Oh, crap!"

"What?" exclaimed Rigby, turning around. Mordecai held out his phone to Rigby, only to reveal that it was broken. The screen had cracks all over it, and the screen was completely black. It must've broke when Mordecai had landed.

"Damn it," declared Mordecai, shaking his head in frustration, "and this was new, too. It had sixty-four gigabytes _and _it was jail-broken…oh, like it'd matter anyway. I probably wouldn't get any reception, and there's no way I'd get any Wi-Fi out here."

Mordecai scoffed and rolled his eyes while jamming it back into his pocket, and he asked, "Do you have yours?"

Rigby shrugged his shoulders and said, "Sorry, dude. I left mine at home, you know, just in case we'd be chased by a bunch of angry circus midgets or something, I wouldn't drop it or anything."

"Great," replied Mordecai, folding his arms and rolling his eyes, "we're lost, we've got no food, we can't use our phones, it's freezing out here, our cart is broken, I'm starting to rant like a wuss…"

"Yup, and Pops is missing…" added Rigby.

"Yeah, and Pops is miss…wait, _what?" _Mordecai unfolded his arms and he raised his eyebrows. He began turning his head from left to right, searching for Pops and his large lolli-pop head.

Suddenly, a cold feeling began drilling a hole into Mordecai's stomach. "Hey…where _is_ Pops?_" _Rigby shrugged his shoulders and blinked.

Mordecai just stared at him for a few seconds, and he walked over to a few bushes and began pushing them out of the way, as if looking for any sign of their boss. Mordecai stopped his shuffling of the bushes, and he cupped his hands around his beak, and he called out, "_Pops? Pops!" _

His only response was the sound of his own echoes coming back to him.

Mordecai turned to Rigby with an alarmed look on his face, and said, "Dude, Pops is _gone!" _Rigby's mouth opened a little in astonishment, and he replied, "What…what do you think happened to him?"

"I dunno," replied Mordecai, getting more uneasy, "where could've he gone?"

"Do you think…", Rigby stood up straight, gulped nervously and his eyes shifted from left to right rapidly, and he continued his sentence in a nervous whisper, "…_the m-midgets got him?"_

Mordecai pondered that for a brief moment while staring at Rigby, and then he shook his head. "No…no, I don't think so, Rigby. I mean, if anything, they would've taken _you."_

Rigby folded his long, furry arms and replied, "Yeah…yeah, you're right. If they would've taken anyone, it would've been…hey, wait a minute…!"

Mordecai instantly interrupted him and said, "Maybe he went to find help?" Rigby shrugged once more and replied, "Maybe. If he's not here, then, that must mean he's ok, right?"

"Yeah," agreed Mordecai, nodding his head, "maybe we should go catch up with him?"

The duo both turned their bodies towards the vast and lonely forest.

Suddenly, it got much more creepier-looking. The fog rolled in much thicker now, and the bare trees now appeared to be like giant monsters with massive claws hanging out, ready to grab and rake in their victims. There weren't even any crickets chirping. Only the sound of the winds howling greeted them.

Mordecai and Rigby blinked and they gulped in unison. Rigby asked, "_Do you think….um…do you think P-Pops went in th-th-there?_"

"Yeah, Rigby," replied the blue-jay, trying to hide the shaky nervousness within his own voice, "where else could he have gone…?"

"Um…ok," began Rigby, his knees beginning to quake a tiny bit, "you first, Mordecai."

Mordecai stared down at Rigby for a moment, and he replied, "Um…ok." Mordecai slowly began walking towards the eerie forest, and he replied with, "F-follow me."

The tall, lanky grounds-keeper led the way into the foggy, saturnine woods. Rigby scampered close by, his eyes nervously flickering from left to right, as owl eyes continuously stared at them both as they walked deeper and deeper into this bizarre, unknown territory.

After walking for about thirty minutes, Mordecai cupped his hands around his beak once more, and called out, "_Pops? Pops! Pops, where are you?"_

Once again, only the echoes of his cries responded to him.

Rigby decided to give it a shot. He cupped his paws around his snout and cried out_, "Hey Pops, we're gonna beat 'The Hammer!'"_

But once again, there was no response.

Suddenly, the forest grew _creepier still. _The owls began hooting repeatedly, almost as if responding to their calls somehow. The fog began rolling in streams now, and the air suddenly dropped in temperatures significantly.

Mordecai and Rigby stopped now, terrified to keep moving forward. The constant groans of the owls and the ghostly fog suddenly made the atmosphere much more grim and devoid of safety.

"Uh…h-hey…Mordecai?"

"…Y-yeah Rigby?..."

"We're not…"

"'Not' what?"

"We're not.." Rigby gulped and wrapped his arms around himself, his own pathetic way of giving himself comfort, "…_lost_, are we?"

"'Lost'? No, _no." _Mordecai forced a fake chuckle, as if trying to make himself sound confident. But Rigby, arched his eyebrow gave him a look.

Mordecai noticed it and frowned, realizing he was fooling nobody, and replied to it with, "Y-yeah, dude. We're lost…"

The blue-jay then placed his feathery palm on his forehead and shook his head slowly in failure. Rigby gulped and stared up at the tree branches, filled with the haunting yellow eyes of owls.

"…Mordecai?"

"Yeah, Rigby?"

"Are we gonna die out here?"

"…"

Rigby simply sighed when he heard Mordecai's silence. He wrapped his arms around himself again, shielding his body from the bitterly-cold winds, and wondered aloud, "If we're this lost, imagine how _Pops _must feel…"

Mordecai closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around himself as well, and lowered his head.

The raccoon blew into his paws, trying to keep them warm, when suddenly, he saw a few white flakes land on his palm. He arched his eyebrows and gazed up at the sky.

A gentle snow-shower had begun. The flakes came waltzing downwards like ghosts dancing in the fog. Rigby frowned and muttered, "_This sucks…"_

Mordecai stared at Rigby trying to keep his paws warm with his own breath, and he frowned. He really didn't mean to put Rigby into all of this. But, what could he do? Pops was missing inside this massive forest somewhere, and now, _they_ were lost as well.

Suddenly, something spectacular and miraculous had caught Mordecai's eyes; a bright light was shining in the distance. It appeared to be a flame of some sort, perhaps belonging to a lantern or a torch.

The blue-jay's face brightened up, and he shook Rigby's shoulder and cried out, _"Rigby! Rigby! Look!"_

Rigby gazed towards the direction Mordecai was pointing at, and a colossal smile spread across his face.

"_Hey, a light!"_

The two, with renewed energy, both bolted towards this fiery light in the distance, excited to see some sign of life besides the owls.

As they got closer and closer, they began noticing more signs of a civilization. For one thing, a colossal town gate began coming into view, and the fires came from a torch bolted on the side of the entrance.

"Dude, maybe Pops is in here!" cried Mordecai, while dashing towards the town gate.

"Yeah," replied Rigby, "and, more importantly, maybe he'll have _food!_"

**But before they entered, two things caught sight of them…**

Two pairs of yellow eyes were observing them as they sprinted closer and closer towards the gate. These two sets of eyes were observing them from the top of two towers on each side of the gate entrance.

"…_Do you see what I see?"_ one asked the other.

"…_Yes. I wonder who they are…"_

"_Do you suppose we should alert King Alucard that we have two new outcasts joining us?"_

"_Hmmm…no. I think they're better off meeting him themselves. King Alucard __**loves**__ making new friends, after all…"_

The two creatures popped their heads out of their nests, only to reveal a black cat with a bright-red scarf around its neck, and a crow wearing a monocle and a purple top-hat. The cat and the crow both turned to each other, and giggled eerily, and they hid back into their holes before Mordecai and Rigby could catch sight of them up there.

Finally, Mordecai and Rigby got to the town gate, and they screeched to a halt. Mordecai and Rigby both stared up at the dreary-looking towers, and suddenly, they weren't so sure if they wanted to go and see this town anymore.

"Uh…Mordecai?" asked Rigby, staring up at the words painted on top of the town gate, "Have you ever heard of this place before?"

"No, dude…"

They both stared at the bright-red, sloppily painted words on the bricks above them, and read it outloud in unison...

"'_**Outcast Town…?'**_**"**

_Author's Notes: Yes, well, here's the first chapter of my first full-length story for the Regular Show archive. Please feel free to drop a review. Thanks._


	2. Alucard the Outcast King

**Chapter two: Alucard the Outcast King**

Silence…nothing but silence.

After what seemed like an eternity with his eyes shut, Pops suddenly began to stir from his slumber. His eyelids twitched and his fingers wiggled as he returned to the real world. His opened his large, round eyes with a _pop! _sound and his eyes flicked from left to right, eyeing his surroundings…whatever they were.

The only problem was…there _weren't _any surroundings. At all.

Wherever Pops was stationed, it was a pitch-black room. A room so dark, that he couldn't even make out anything in the darkness, like one can do after their eyes adjust to the darkness.

The only source of light in this room was this very peculiar light that hung over Pops' head, whatever it was. It appeared to a giant, ghostly lantern hanging from a chain on an undistinguishable ceiling over his head, and it shone on him blindingly-bright, almost as if a UFO was hovering over his head to abduct him.

Pops squinted and put his small, pink palm over his eyes to shield his vision from this luminous flame. He gazed backwards, and then he arched his eyebrow, and called out, "_Hellooooooooo?_"

His voice echoed as if this room were massive in size.

Suddenly, a voice that seemed to be right next to him made itself known.

"Hello…"

Pops gazed forward with his eyes wide and his pupils shrunken in a mixture of fear and surprise. The voice seemed to come right in front of him. Pops' eyes met a pair of shining, yellow eyes staring back at him. The lollipop-headed man couldn't even tell who it was that was gazing at him. As a way to ease his curiosity, the figure came forward into the light, revealing their face.

It was a person…but not a person Pops had ever seen before.

The figure that stood there was a tall, well-built man. A man who didn't appear to be very old, perhaps in his mid-20's. His skin appeared to be healthy, and appeared to be well-groomed. Their hair was dark, short, and appeared to be somewhat spiky. Their nose was long and curved, and his eyes, awkwardly enough, seemed to be glowing yellow, like a cat's eyes in the darkness. Their wore a very ostentatious tuxedo, complete with a red bow-tie around their neck, a delicate pink carnation pinned onto their breast pocket, and shined dress shoes.

"Um…" began Pops, blinking as he stared into the cold eyes of this mysterious stranger, "…Uh…heh-heh…hello there, old chap. Mind telling where I am?"

The figure's face remained cold and emotionless, not even opening his nostrils to take in a breath of air. Pops suddenly felt uneasiness towards this new character, staring at him like a lifeless statue.

The lollipop-headed man blinked once and said, "Can I…oh, say, know your name?"

The stranger, after holding his tongue for so long, finally spoke up. _"Are you hungry?"_

Pops' face suddenly brightened up, and he grinned a little. He put one of his small, pink little hands to his chin and exclaimed, "Well, now that you mention it, I am a little…"

Before Pops could finish his sentence, the stranger lifted his arm up, and snapped his fingers. The second he did, a line of torches on sconces suddenly lit up one side of the room, revealing a colossal, brick wall. Right after, another line of torches began sparking to life on the other side of the room. Pops' eyes swung from left to right, trying to comprehend what was going on.

There was nothing in this room except for torches and stony walls…and a large buffet table filled with various foods. Pops' eyes landed on all the delicacies on the table, and he licked his lips.

"Oooooh," declared Pops', excitedly tasting all the food with his imagination, "is all that for _meeee?"_

**Thirty minutes later…**

Pops was stuffing his mouth with mashed potatoes with his left hand, and swirling up some spaghetti with a fork with his right. The food came in piles, and Pops was having a grand old time stuffing his face…that is, until, Pops noticed his host sitting at the other end of the table, staring at him evilly.

The lollipop-headed man lowered the food away from his mouth, and gulped what he had in his throat. He blinked, and felt nervous all of a sudden. The mysterious figure on the opposite side on the table glared at him with his golden eyes, his head tilted downwards with his eyes tilted upwards. Pops stared down at the plate half-filled with food, and then back up at the evil-eyed fellow.

"Ummmm…" began Pops, starting to feel a few drips of sweat beginning to leak down the sides of his head. "Am I…chewing too loudly?"

The stranger opened his mouth, and declared, "_Are you still hungry?"_

Pops slowly pushed his plate away from his body, and declared, "Well, um, I believe I've had my fill." Secretly, Pops had lost his appetite due to this villainous figure staring at him sinisterly.

"Really?" said this figure, arching his eyebrow, "but you haven't even tried the main course…"

All of a sudden, the stranger suddenly gave a large, toothy smile. But it wasn't just an ordinary toothy smile, it was a smile filled with razor-sharp teeth. Their eyes suddenly began to glow an unearthly menacing yellowish color, and they slammed their hands on the dinner table as they stood up.

The stranger then raised his arm and slashed at all the food that was intricately placed on the table, sending it all flying away. Pops just stared, hypnotized at what was going on.

He slammed his elbows on the table and placed his palms on the top of his head as he began groaning louder and more wickedly. His hands began twitching and his teeth began doubling in size. Muscles began popping out of his arms, legs, and torso. Large, black patches of fur began growing on his hands and face. His face began stretching out into a snout, and his ears began pointing backwards. The stranger grabbed his tuxedo, and tore it off violently, revealing his chest beginning to sprout the same black fur on his face and arms. His back began hunching, and his arms grew long and more muscular.

Pops continued to stare with his eyes wide-open and his mouth agape, observing as this stranger no longer appeared human.

Finally, their transformation was complete. What stood before Pops was no longer that bizarre man with the dear tuxedo and spiky hair, but a bloodthirsty creature of the night, a werewolf.

The werewolf stood there, hunchbacked, panting heavily and it's fangs dripping with blood. Its ghastly yellow eyes locked on Pops hungrily.

The park-owner blinked twice, and he began to smile. _"Ahhhh…ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaaa! Jolly good show!"_

Pops began to clap and chuckle, impressed with this stranger's fancy trick. The werewolf's eyes widened with surprise, and the werewolf uttered a questioning groan. The monster realized that Pops was not taking him seriously. The wolf then squinted his eyes, burning with fury, and bared his blood-stained fangs. The creature leapt up unto the air, and pounced on Pops lap, and flared his nostrils right on the gentlemanly lollipop-headed man's face.

"_You've had your fill,_" hissed the werewolf, "_but I haven't had mine…_"

Pops frowned for a second, but then he smiled jovially once more and replied with, "Oh, there's still some mashed potatoes right there if you'd like." Pops leaned over to the side and grabbed the spoon filled with a scoop of mashed potatoes, and stuck it up to the wolf's face.

"Here," said Pops waving it in the beast's face and grinning wildly, "you really _should_ try some. It's quite tasty, you know." The creature blinked in confusion once again, amazed that this lollipop-headed fellow wasn't trembling in fear or begging for his life. All he was doing was giggling and offering him mashed potatoes. The creature fumed with rage once more and shoved his face right in front of Pops, growling and beginning to drip blood from its fangs once again.

"_SKOLL!" _

A young, authoritative voice pierced the silence of the room in a heartbeat. Both Pops and the wolf both turned towards where the voice had come from, and they both saw a shadow in the dark corners of the room.

Little did Pops know that this shadow belonged to that same figure that had kidnapped him while he, Mordecai, and Rigby were unconscious a few hours ago. Their eyes glowed a menacing red. The werewolf seemed to be a bit nervous, because they instantly hopped off of Pops' lap and seemed to lower their head.

"T-t-t-terribly sorry, sir, I was just…" began the wolf, whose name is Skoll, but the other figure stopped him and answered him.

"_Your orders were to feed him, bring him to the queen's throne room, and nothing more. Is that so hard to do?"_

The massive, spine-chilling werewolf began trembling like a leaf at the sound of the stranger's voice. "N-no sir…" replied Skoll, bumbling over towards Pops and picking him up with his colossal claws.

"_Ok then,"_ replied the obscure figure in the shadows, "_Go up to Queen Pyra's chamber. Cinder and I will meet you there shortly to discuss this candy-like man's…role…in our experiment."_

"Yes sir." replied Skoll, and he charged out of that room as fast as his muscular, powerful legs could carry him with Pops on his back.

"Oh goodie!" declared Pops as the wolf carried him away, "Will I get a lollipop after this experiment like in the dentist's office?"

**Meanwhile, rejoining Mordecai and Rigby at the town gate…**

Mordecai and Rigby stayed staring at those red, crooked letters written in crimson paint.

_Outcast Town_…

What a fitting name. It seemed as though this place was _indeed_ an outcast. It was an outcast from all the other surrounding towns and villages. The town gate appeared very old, as if it had been built hundreds of years ago or something in that nature.

After what seemed like hours of staring up at the sign, Rigby's voice pierced the silence.

"Dude," began Rigby, starting to blink again from staring at the sign almost as if he were in a trance-like state, "do you think this place has phones?"

Mordecai lowered his head and shifted his eyes towards the rusty, eerie, and black fence that stood in front of their path. A sharp, chilly wind suddenly came from the east, yanking one of the gates wide open. The gate creaked noisily as it swayed lifelessly in the spontaneous gust.

"I don't think anybody even _lives _here." The blue-jay lifted his wing-like arm and scratched his head in confusion, wondering why this town suddenly caught their eye. Could Pops be in here? If so, was he ok?

"Ya think we should go in?" interrogated Rigby, wrapping his furry little stick-like arms around himself to keep himself warm from the frozen grips of the brisk air.

"Hmph-hmph," replied Mordecai, nodding his head with each "hmph", "We should go in there and, like, ask if they've seen Pops and try to phone Benson and Skips."

The two groundskeepers approached the aged, broken-down fence and squeezed their way through it. However, a chill slithered down Mordecai's spine like a snake. He really couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he felt as though he and Rigby were both being watched by a pair of hidden eyes. The thought of a pair of eyes observing their every move brought a feeling of uneasiness and distress to him.

Mordecai was not the only one having this awkward feeling of being watched by a mysterious spectator. Rigby also felt a gaze shifted in his direction, almost as if they were watching his black and brown-striped tail wagging back and forth, as if they wanted to pounce on it.

As soon as they set foot on the other side of the gate, Mordecai suddenly stopped for a second. Rigby continued a few more steps, but his eyes shifted to his right, and noticed that Mordecai wasn't trotting along with him. Rigby arched his eyebrow, and he turned his head only half-way around, and he observed Mordecai staring uneasily up at one of the towers.

"Mordecai?" called out Rigby, turning his entire body around towards him, "what's wrong?" Mordecai simply stayed staring at the town gate's tower, as if he were waiting for something to occur. But no, Mordecai simply stood there like a statue, his neck arched backwards, his eyes locked on that hole in the tower. Rigby quickly scampered over and stood next to his friend, and he too, began staring up at that bizarre hole as well.

"What is it, dude?" interrogated Rigby, still with his eyes focused on the hole. Mordecai, after a moment or two of keeping silent, finally spoke up.

"I dunno, Rigby," replied Mordecai, in a grim, deeply-focused tone of voice. "I feel like…there's something _up _there." Rigby stayed staring at that hole for a few seconds, and tore his eyes away from that dark hole.

"Ah, c'mon Mordecai, there's nothing up there. It's all in your head…" In reality, Mordecai's unusual behavior started to freak Rigby out a little. Mordecai hardly ever acted like this, so he must've _truly believed _something might be gazing at them from afar.

The blue-jay simply shook his head for a moment, as if trying to break the hold that that hole had had on him.

"Yeah," declared Mordecai, still with his eyes fixed on the tower, "you're right, dude. C'mon let's get going." They both whirled around and continued striding forward.

As they were walking away, however, Mordecai couldn't help but stare back at that haunting tower just once more. He slowly and reluctantly shifted his head around, and his eyes landed on the tower.

And that's when he saw it…

Two pairs of eyes staring back them, glowing yellow in the darkness. There was no mistake in his mind, they were indeed being watched. His pupils shrunk with panic and beak hung slightly open. He whirled his head back around and shut his eyes while quietly chanting to himself, "_Please be my imagination, please be my imagination…"_

**Finally, the two entered the heart of the town…**

The two groundskeepers both strode quietly and slowly, observing this most peculiar town. The path beneath their feet was constructed out of stone, and was shaded either black or gray. They couldn't tell due to the ghostly-white fog making it ineligible to make out.

As they marched deeper into this village, they kept staring at the awkward buildings that were lined up on the sides of the walkway. Some of these buildings appeared to be towers, others appeared to be ordinary houses, and some buildings even appeared to be inspired by gothic architecture. They could see lights, from an unknown light-source, glimmering in the castle-style windows.

This town didn't appear to be powered by electricity, however. The sources that served as light were torches standing on top of elegant holders. The shadows of the snowflakes reflected off of the dancing flames on the torches. As Mordecai and Rigby slowly made their way across the town, they noticed the trees, lifeless and devoid of leaves on their branches.

"Wow, Mordecai," stated Rigby quietly as they continued on, "this place sure is _dead…" _Just as Rigby finished saying that, they passed by a tree that appeared to be barren of leaves, and its branches hung lifelessly on its trunk. The second they had their backs to the tree, the branches slowly lifted themselves up, as if coming back to life, and began sprouting golden, sparkling roses, one by one, from their seemingly-empty branches.

Where were they? The streets were so silent, that even their own _footsteps _sounded like a racket. It was so disturbing and eerie, and the two felt their fur and feathers crawl. The wind blew and it sounded like a wailing spirit, and the variety of the buildings surrounding them cast scary shadows that appeared to be giant monsters in the fog.

"Mordecai?" asked an uneasy Rigby, shivering from the cold, icy winds.

"Yeah, dude?" replied Mordecai.

"Where do you think we are?"

Mordecai ceased his walking and carefully observed his surroundings. He scratched the top-right corner of his head with his plumed index finger and uttered, "I dunno, Rigby." And then, while still in the process of surveying his surroundings, his eye caught something in the midst of all the fog. Or…_someone. _

It appeared to be someone's shadow. They appeared to be wearing a cloak with their hood up, dusting the sidewalk with an aged broom. They had their back turned towards the groundskeepers, and their cloak appeared to be quite over-sized, since their sleeves seemed to swallow up their hands. Mordecai began to grin a little, and he uttered, "And it looks we're about to find out, dude."

He turned around towards Rigby and said, "Hold on a sec, dude. I'll be right back." As he approached the sweeping figure, he could see tiny dust particles hovering around the broom head. Mordecai quietly gulped as he got nearer to this person. Just seeing a lone person, sweeping up a sidewalk on a foggy, snowy evening in what appeared to be a ghost town was a bit frightening.

Finally, Mordecai stood right behind this person. Strangely, the person did not turn away from his work. Either this was a person truly dedicated to his work, or he did not hear the blue-jay creep up behind him. The blue-jay waited quietly for a few seconds, hoping this sweeper might notice him and turn around.

But no, the sweeper continuously kept right on working, not even bothering to even turn his head. Mordecai soon realized that _he _had to make the first move. So, swallowing a nervous lump in his throat, he spoke up.

"Uh…excuse me…"

Almost abruptly, the figure stopped his sweeping, almost as if he were a wind-up toy and their wind-up key had stopped rotating. For a brief moment, Mordecai wondered if he should've continued or just kept his beak shut. But before deciding, the stranger finally turned around. They were a man, and they appeared to be…perfectly _normal_. However, they did appear to have something exotic underneath each eye. It almost appeared to be a patch of light-blue reptilian scales. This man appeared to be fairly young, perhaps in his early twenties.

This stranger had a very warm, welcoming smile upon his lips.

"Oh, hi there," declared the young man kindly "Are you new here?" Mordecai was actually quite flabbergasted that this person appeared to be so jovial and warm-hearted. The streets were so lonely and barren, yet it had such friendly and kind people in it?

The groundskeeper responded to him by saying, "Uh, yeah, uh, I mean-I mean no. I-I-I mean, uh, you see, we got stuck here, and-and-and we need to use a phone. Mine's broken, so…could we use your phone?"

The sweeping man suddenly stared at the blue-jay as if he had grown eight more heads. He arched his eyebrow and tilted his head like an animal would if it observed something unusual. Mordecai simply stared back at him, hoping for a "yes" as a reply. But instead, the stranger puzzlingly replied with, "I'm sorry…but what's a phone?"

Mordecai blinked and his beak hung open slightly. Was this man joking? Not knowing what to do, Mordecai began explaining. "You know, a phone! A little rectangular thing with buttons and numbers on it. You crunch in numbers whenever you wanna call somebody, or someone calls you." The groundskeeper pretended to be clutching an imaginary phone and pressing buttons on it. The stranger stared at Mordecai for a second, and said, "Hmmm…nope, sorry." The man shook his head slowly and continued, "I don't know what you're talking about. Maybe King Alucard would know…" But then the man brightened up again, and stuck out his hand, offering a friendly handshake to the blue-jay, "But, anyways, my name's Waylon! It's nice to meet you. What's your name?"

When the man's sleeve shifted, one of his hands was revealed. Instead of having fingers like an average human, he had snakes for fingers. His fingers were actually lives snakes. They hissed and writhed continuously, and Mordecai couldn't believe what he was staring at. Mordecai slowly began away, with his eyes wide with fear and confusion. First, Mordecai took a few steps back, and then, like a mad grasshopper, he whirled around and sprinted away. Rigby noticed this and asked, "Dude, what's wrong?"

"_Let's get outta here, dude!"_ Mordecai scooped up Rigby as he dashed right past him. Mordecai kept on running and running blindly through the milky-white fog, trying to get away from that snake-fingered man named Waylon as fast he possibly could, until finally, he rammed into someone.._.hard._

Mordecai and Rigby bounced off of this strong person they rammed into, and next thing they knew, they were both on the floor, slightly dizzy from the impact. Rigby and Mordecai both shook their heads, and gazed up at whomever they bumped into.

A dark-blue unicorn with a silver, spiraling horn, standing on their hind legs wearing a suit and tie, stared down at the two. Mordecai and Rigby both gawked at it from the floor. They had seen some very unusual things in their adventures, alright, but nothing _this _weird.

"Oops," said the blue unicorn, leaning down and stretching out his hooves, "Do you need some help getting up?"

Mordecai and Rigby both stood up in a heartbeat, and split up, running in random directions, away from the unicorn.

Rigby went sprinting towards a random house, and dove underneath an old, wooden staircase. He shielded his eyes and trembled, hoping this was just some kind of bizarre dream. He stayed in there for only a few seconds, when he heard something in there with him. He opened his eyes, and he turned his head, only to see something very awkward.

A little odd creature, resembling a dog and an anteater, stared back at him with large, yellow, bloodshot eyes. Bits of its gray fury was peeling off, revealing some bones and flesh. Rigby's face drooped and his eyes widened. The creature just stayed staring at him for a second, and then it smiled a cute, cheeky little smile and said, "Hi, my name's Freddy…"

Rigby yelped and scattered out of their as fast as his paws could carry him, leaving Freddy the little mutant zombie anteater-dog confused as ever.

**With all the commotion and ruckus going on the outside, more awkward and strange people began coming out of their homes to see what was going on. They knew whenever there was a big commotion going on, it usually meant the town had some new arrivals.**

Mordecai and Rigby were in the town square, surrounded by strange creatures, people, monsters, and animals. Among many things were what appeared to be a young girl with three eyes, a creature made out of some kind of purple slime, an angelic-like being with lengthy, brown hair and bright green eyes complete with a shirt that said "Slayer", and pants covered with chains, a little lizard-like creature with a spiky shell on its back and a gopher-like face, and even a giant beetle that communicated only with odd roars and clicking sounds that the other bizarre creatures affectionately called, "Goarro".

"Holy crap, man," declared Rigby, eyeing all of their bizarre spectators, "what's going on?" Mordecai gulped and declared, "I dunno, dude. I'm getting freaked out here." The creatures all began circling them, clamoring excitedly about their newest members.

"Oh my goodness! New arrivals!"

"Do you think they're hungry?"

"Do you think King Alucard will like them?"

"King Alucard will be so happy to see them!"

There was nothing but talking and joyful chattering about their newest guests. But, Mordecai and Rigby couldn't help but constantly notice them repeating the name, "Alucard". Who was Alucard? Why did they refer to him as "King"?

But, all of a sudden…all of them grew extremely silent. It grew quiet, dead quiet. The two groundskeepers arched their eyebrows and their eyes swung from left to right, curious to know why everything died down all of a sudden.

Almost as a way of responding to their thoughts, the oddities all began to make a pathway, and in the process, they began bowing down, as if some element of royalty were approaching them or something in that nature.

Mordecai and Rigby arched their eyebrows, and then, they heard some footsteps approaching. Not heavy footsteps, nor powerful, but the footsteps of a wanderer, light and gentle. They gazed forward, and saw a figure coming out of the fog and snow. Mordecai and Rigby both squinted their eyes to see whose silhouette it belonged to.

The figure came out of the fog, and there they saw him.

This stranger wore a dark blue cloak with a purple trim around the wrists of the sleeves and hood (and he rarely has his hood down), brown traveler's boots, and black gloves. He had shoulder-length, messy black hair, glowing sapphire-blue eyes, sharp-teeth (one could see two sharp fangs protruding out of his upper lips), and he wore a silver chain with a small, wooden crucifix on around his neck.

He clutched an old, wooden staff as well, almost as if it were some kind of scepter. He also seemed to have a bizarre, blue mist hovering around and circling his body. Mordecai and Rigby both blinked in amazement. They were amazed at how much respect and honor the residents of this awkward town gave to this humble-looking person.

The other awkward creatures stayed on their knees, as a way of showing respect and humbleness towards this particular figure.

"Who…" began Mordecai, swallowing some of his fear, "Who are you?"

The hooded young man blinked his glowing, sapphire-blue eyes once, and responded with, "_My name…is Alucard. I'm the Outcast King." _Alucard smiled a bit, and bowed his head slightly towards the two groundskeepers. "_I welcome you, dear friends, to Outcast Town…"_

Mordecai and Rigby had just met face to face with Alucard, the king of all the outcasts that existed in this bizarre realm…

_Author's Notes: Finally, it appears that Mordecai and Rigby have finally met the awkward denizens of Outcast Town. I will mention what I do and do not own at the end of this story. _


	3. Oddities

_Author's Notes: The next chapter of "Outcast Town?" Please enjoy it. I will disclaim all that I do not own at the end of this story._

**Chapter 3: Oddities**

"'Outcast Town'? What?" replied Mordecai, his eyes swinging from left to right as he stared at all the awkward creatures and people, who were still bowing down to their ruler.

"Mmm, yes," replied Alucard, nodding his head once, "This is Outcast Town, friends of mine. Welcome." He turned around and said, "_Let us all greet our new guests!"_

All of a sudden, every single outcast in the crowd stood up, with greetings, of "Hello!", "Hi!", and "Welcome!"

The two groundskeepers looked around slowly, awed by how bizarre some of these things appeared to be. It made no sense. Was this town stuck in the mindset that it was Halloween all-year round?

The blue-jay shook his head and stepped forward. "Ok, ok, this is cute and everything," he began, making gestures with his wings, "but we need some answers." He looked around once more at all the oddities surrounding the three, and asked, "Just where the 'H' are we, how do we get outta here, and why does everybody look so freakin' _weird?_"

The hooded Outcast King grinned a bit and lowered his head. Alucard knew what they were feeling, since nearly all new-comers acted this way. He could almost predict what they were going to say.

"Ah, f-friends," answered Alucard, lifting his head and his blue eyes shining, "You don't need to be afraid. You're among…_among_ friends here. We're all good people…"

"'_People_'?" repeated Mordecai, his eyes widening. His eyes began shifting around once more, and his eyes landed on one particular critter that appeared _highly _unusual. "How is _that…" _he pointed to the creature, "a person?" 

Mordecai's feathery index finger pointed to a large, muscular, fur-covered anthropomorphic ram-human hybrid. It stood upright on its hind legs, and the hooves on its "hands" were curled up into rock-hard fists. It had the body of a bruiser; its stomach was thin in the middle, but had broad, wide shoulders and bulky biceps. It had a long, white goatee, and its horns curled up into large spirals. Its fur was a mixture of gray and white, and it had beady little emerald-green eyes. On its hooves (or hands), it wore massive, iron gauntlets in the shape of ram's horns.

When the blue-jay pointed at it, the creature raised its eyebrows in curiosity. Its colossal head swung to the left and to the right, and then it asked, in a squeaky, high-pitched tone of voice, _"Who? Me?"_

"Yeah," added Rigby, pointing his paw at another being up on a tree branch, "or _that?" _

The creature Rigby pointed at, appeared to be some sort of Opossum-like mammal…except it wore a suit of gleaming, azure armor, and clutched a sharp, double-edged sword in one of its metallic paws. Awkwardly enough, it bared a small resemblance to Rigby himself, except it looked more heroic and brave.

The opossum stared down at Rigby from its branch and replied, "I'm a person…?"

The blue-jay turned to yet another oddity, and declared, "What about _that_ thing, huh?" His index finger pointed to a little, bright-orange slug with very long eyestalks. The slug only blinked once.

"Or what about _that _thing right there?" declared Rigby, pointing at something else and making an overly-repulsed face as he gazed at it, "that thing's _**hideous**_!"

"Uh, dude…you're pointing at _me."_

"I know. Dude, don't you, like, look in the mirror before you leave the house, you _**plank**_?" Rigby closed his eyes, shook his head, and crossed his furry little stick-like arms.

Mordecai just stared at Rigby for a few seconds…

"_Uh…riiiiiiight…"_

and then he turned back to the hooded Outcast King once more.

"Look man," explained the blue-jay, trying his hardest to remain calm and attempting to not sound frightened or nervous, "We don't know where we are, and we need a ride back home." The groundskeeper reached into his feathery pocket, and whipped out his broken iPhone. "You see, it turns out we had this accident, right, and we're like—"

"_Ooooooooh!"_ declared all the unique creatures and people of Outcast Town with wide eyes and mouths hanging open, as Mordecai showed them his foreign piece of technology from the outside world.

"Uh…yeah…" offered Mordecai as a rebuttal, with his eyebrows arched and his eyes swinging from left to right, "Um, anyway, we need to get back home, so, my friend and I were wondering…"

"Oh, sorry," declared Alucard, frowning and shaking his head a bit, "Home isn't…home isn't an option."

Rigby uncrossed his arms, arched his eyebrow, eyed Alucard observantly, and suspiciously asked, "_Whattaya __**mean**__ 'home isn't an option'…?"_

"Well, y-yes," replied Alucard, innocently shrugging his shoulders and trying to explain it in a calm manner without stuttering. "You see, once you've entered within Outcast Town's… wuh…wuh…_" _The hooded young man lowered his head, shut his eyes tightly, and struggled to get his words out. Alucard suffered from a severe case of stuttering and stammering. Even the most basic vernacular would be like building a rocket for him. Speech was not his strong-point, unfortunately.

Finally, he sputtered out, "…_walls…_you cannot leave here."

"_What?" _declared the two groundskeepers, as their jaws hit the floor and their eyes became bug-eyed and bloodshot as soon as they heard his poorly-said words.

"_Whoa-whoa-whoa, hold on a second_," declared Rigby, stepping forward and waving his paws in the air, "What are we, like, hostages or something? Are you gonna eat us for dinner?" Rigby put his paw to his chin, and squinted his eyes, "'Cause if you are…" He whirled around and pointed at Mordecai, "_**He**__ tastes better than I do!"_

"_What? Rigby!" _hollered Mordecai, clenching his feathery fists and flashing a dirty glare in Rigby's direction.

"Um…" Alucard arched his dark eyebrow and tilted his head a bit. "We don't want… we don't want to eat you. We're just here to be…be friends. That's all." The Outcast King's blazing, sapphire-blue eyes shifted up towards the sky and he rubbed his chin. He pondered for a moment or two, and then, his pupil-less glowing eyes shifted down and his eyes focused back to the two groundskeepers.

"Mmm, perhaps….perhaps I need someone to ex-explain exactly what this town is all about." He turned around, and began calling out, "Goarro! Goarro, where are you? We need y-your help!"

At that moment, Mordecai and Rigby both froze and their pupils shrank as they heard loud, thundering footsteps coming up from behind the group of bizarre-o critters. Alucard simply grinned a little. "Ah, here he comes now…"

Out of the crowd stepped that enormous, frightening beetle that the two had seen just moments ago. It slowly made its way up to the three, with his large, dark pincers snapping open and closed. Mordecai and Rigby both stood there, with their snout and beak slightly hanging open slightly.

The beetle had large, indigo eyes with sharp pincers, and a mandible filled with sharp, lime-green teeth. He had a large, horn on his forehead and six limbs, which two of them were prickly, spiked forelegs.

Finally, the tremendous insect stopped right next to Alucard, and was facing Mordecai and Rigby. Alucard turned to the insect, and said, "Goarro, I'm glad you're here…"

He patted Goarro (the beetle's name) on the back as if he were an old friend, and Goarro opened its mouth and made a low, groaning sound.

"W-well, you see," began the Outcast King, explaining things to him as if he were any ordinary human being. "These two right here are new to the town."

The towering insect turned his body towards Mordecai and Rigby, and let out a loud roar-like grunt, and made a few clicking sounds. Alucard turned to the slackers, and translated for them. "He says, 'hello.'

The hooded king then turned back to the colossal beetle, and began explaining his situation. "You see, Goarro, these two want to leave Outcast Town. You and I both know how d-d-diff…_difficult_ it is to do that. Would you mind explaining it to them? You know how…how hard it is for me to explain things…"

Alucard grinned an embarrassed grin, and gave Goarro the floor.

Despite his rather grotesque and highly-intimidating appearance, Goarro was actually quite wise and good-hearted. He wouldn't harm a fly, and often, Alucard consulted Goarro for his expertise in explaining things he couldn't.

The insect began communicating with his insect-like language, explaining the mysterious phenomenon that was Outcast Town. Goarro began making his roaring and clicking sounds to communicate.

**These are Goarro's words, translated by Alucard for Mordecai and Rigby to understand…**

"_Outcast Town is a mysterious earthly realm that has taken the shape of an awkwardly-designed town that possesses supernatural powers, such as converting its denizens into a physical representation of the very emotion they felt as soon as they set foot into the town. In addition to this, its citizens are left in a type of suspended animation, meaning that their aging process has come to halt, by some mysterious force. _

_Also, this town has no absolute location. We have denizens from all over the world. It simply vanishes from one place to another, and it only appears to those who are troubled by society. However, like all things that seem good, there is a price to pay. We can never leave once we have entered. Not by air, land, or any other way. But, this does not us any distress, for we are outcasts. Nobody loves us nor cares for us in the world, which is why we have our very own special place for ourselves where we lead happy lives doing various tasks and living like an ordinary humble society. We love it here, and we'd like it if you were to stay and remain here with us…"_

Alucard nodded his head once as soon as Goarro finished his speech filled with clicks, roars, and groans.

Mordecai and Rigby just stared at the two, eyes wide with amazement at what they had just heard. Was this all a dream? Were they still unconscious back at their golf-cart where they had landed? Or did they die and this was heaven? Or perhaps limbo?

"Dude," stated Mordecai, pointing at Goarro with his pupils shrinking with amazement, "you actually _understand _that thing?"

Right when he asked that, a bizarre creature with a worm/snake-body, a single bright green eye and a mouth with sharp teeth for a head, two antennae and a clump of purple hair on its head, overheard him as it slithered on by.

It gazed up at Mordecai for one second, blinked, and uttered, "Sure, we all do." Just then, a female citizen made out of fog dressed in a ghostly-white night-gown whisped up right next to Mordecai and added, "With some time, you will too!" And she vanished in a puff of smoke.

"Man, this is confusing," announced Rigby, shaking his head, "So, like, everyone here really _is _a person?" All the denizens of the town nodded their heads and clamored in agreement. The raccoon carefully observed them all as they agreed in their enthusiastic cloud.

"Hmmm, I dunno, Rigby," announce the skeptical Mordecai, squinting his eyes, and cross his arms, "How do we know you're telling the truth?"

Goarro and Alucard turned to each other, and Alucard pointed a gloved finger towards where Mordecai and Rigby had come from. The two groundskeepers turned towards the direction he was pointing, and they couldn't believe what they saw.

The exit had vanished…_completely. _There was no more town gate or those two towers that Mordecai had felt that they were being watched from.

But…but…" stammered Mordecai, hardly believing his eyes.

"We told…told you…" replied Alucard, as if already knowing his thoughts. The two turned back to the outcast king, now feeling much more freaked out than ever before.

"Alright…" declared Mordecai, trying to hide the shakiness in his voice, "now I'm freaked out…"

"Won't you at least come and t-t-take…take a look around?" coaxed the hooded Outcast King, smiling and revealing his fang-like teeth a bit, "I'm sure you'll like it."

The two groundskeepers exchanged nervous glances, wondering if they should accept or decline this bizarre stranger's offer.

Finally, after a moment or two of pondering, Mordecai finally replied.

"Well…I guess."

"**Trust me…once you get adapted here…you'll like…like it here…"**

Rigby, Mordecai, Alucard, and Goarro all marched through the melancholy and unusual town, gazing at all the marvels and oddities that surrounded them.

The two slackers looked all around with their eyes peeled in surprise and curiosity, and were now a bit more eager to learn about this place.

They saw creatures that one could only imagine to see in their dreams. One of them was a thin, tall humanoid-like creature with slimy frog-like skin and a fish face, while another one appeared to be a mixture of a bat, a rat, and a cat, complete with spider-legs, a very wide mouth filled with pointy teeth, and six eyes.

A few critters walked right past them, and the two groundskeepers couldn't help but stared at them. A trio of elves came marching right past them, with purple skin, pointy green hats, and shoes with bells at the tips.

One of the weirdest beings they saw there, was a large griffin, with silver and golden skin, and a gray beak, striding right past them with its head up high and piercing, emerald-green eyes. Mordecai and Rigby both stared at it, wide-eyed and in bewilderment, both uttering, _"Whooooaaaa…"_ at the same time.

"Mmm, so…do you like it here?" interrogated Alucard, with a small smirk on his lips. Mordecai and Rigby both stood side by side, unsure of what to say at this point.

However, before they could open their mouths to give a response, a large, white blur swooshed right in front of them, followed by an impressive wind gust.

The two of them nervously glanced around and Rigby asked, "Dude, what the 'H' _was _that?" Goarro and Alucard both gazed up at the sky. The hooded Outcast King smiled a little and said, "Mmm, Ami's here…"

"'Ami'?" stated Mordecai and Rigby in unison while exchanging baffled expressions on each other's faces.

At that moment, a very large white wolf (roughly about the size of a horse) with a sky-blue mane, emerald-green eyes, and colossal eagle wings on its back, swooped down and screeched to a halt right in front of the four.

Mordecai and Rigby both stared up at the wolf's eyes, almost as if they were hypnotized by them.

Alucard, however, simply approached it casually as if this wolf were a common sight, and he placed his gloved hand on its furry, sleek back.

"Ami," he stated, looking up into its eyes, "I'm glad…glad you could make it!"

The king of all outcasts turned around to Mordecai and Rigby, and stated, "_Friends, this is Ami, my pet…"_


	4. Pops N' Pyra

_Author's Notes: Here, we rejoin Pops and meet the villainous Queen Pyra and some of her cronies. I will disclaim all that I do not own at the end of this story. Enjoy._

**Chapter Four: Pops N' Pyra**

Skoll sprinted up the long, spiraling staircase. The stairs were covered with a crimson, velvet carpet that seemed to stretch for miles.

Pops gazed around nervously and he flopped up and down on the treacherous werewolf's shoulder, wondering just where on earth he was headed to.

"Oh my," declared the smiling and ignorantly-brave Pops, staring at the treacherous wolf as he dashed. "You're travelling quite fast, do you mind telling me where I'm going?"

"You'll see soon enough, Bozo." responded the back-stabbing Skoll in his gruff, monstrous voice as his claws and paws dug into the stony floor to fling his gargantuan body forward faster.

The flight of stairs seemed endless to Pops. It almost appeared like a prison cell. The stones that made up the walls appeared old and seemed to have massive scorch marks on them, from some kind of malevolent flame.

The staircase was lit up by sconces, lined up in rows along the stone walls, sculpted into the shapes of winged dragons with their heads titled vertically upward with a tongue of flame spewing out of their mouths.

Where Pops was heading to, Skoll didn't say. But the joyful lollipop-headed fellow was being carried off to a very dangerous place. Somewhere that some of the bravest beings wouldn't dare to tread in fear of being burned to a crisp three times over. It belonged to someone whose name brought fear and agony into the hearts of the innocent and peaceful denizens of Outcast Town.

**And her name was Queen Pyratranokiticalifa, or Queen Pyra, as she demanded to be called by her royal subjects (or else). Queen Pyra was a cold-hearted, cruel, merciless, and iron-fisted ruler. Anything she demanded, her servants and subjects would give to her immediately.**

**The bizarre universal laws of Outcast Town had also granted her a unique and very powerful ability; she could manipulate fire. She used these powers to intimidate and destroy whoever opposed her.**

**This place was Queen Pyra's throne room. It was a massive chamber that also served as the Great Hall of her fiery and colossal domain. Her royal subjects and servants often trembled when they stood before her, fearing her short and violent temper. If they even **_**uttered**_** something that she found unpleasant, she would scorch them alive, even if they were dead, she would continuously burn their bodies to ashes. Another disturbing fact, is that she has never smiled even once in her life.**

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of climbing up that endless flight of spiraling stairs, they reached a massive wooden door, with door-knockers in the shape of dragons with large rings in between their jaws and it had scorch marks all over it.

"Now listen and listen _good!" _declared Skoll, turning his furry, massive head only half-way, staring at Pops with only one eye as he spoke. "You're gonna respect the queen at all times. Don't speak to her unless she gives you permission, don't get on her bad side, and don't ask too many questions. She's bigger than me, and bigger than you, and the most important thing of all, is that she's bigger than _**me!**_"

"'Queen?" asked Pops, his eyes widening and his mouth shifting into a grin, "You mean like the ones in those Disney films?"

Skoll just stared at Pops for a second, blinked, and then decided to ignore his stupid question and proceeded to push open the fire-scarred doors to her throne room with his massive, clawed paws.

**When the doors creaked open, the odor of smoke and intense heat blasted Pops' face and nostrils. Candles on top of scones rested in neat rows along the left and right walls. A sparkling and golden chandelier elegantly encrusted with precious gems clung from the ceiling, and an extensive crimson carpet that spanned from the entrance to the queen's diligently-crafted throne.**

**And on top of that throne, sat the ruthless Queen Pyra.**

Skoll slowly walked into the room, making sure not to show any disrespect towards his queen by running like an idiot in her personal chambers. Pops' large lolli-pop head swung from left to right, observing all of his dismal and gloomy surroundings.

Massive red curtains clung from the tops of windows, and suits of armor stood lined up along the lines on both sides of the Great Hall.

The walls were stony and grim, and shaded a bleak turquoise color, stained and marked with what appeared to be more scorch marks, and quite possibly, blood stains.

Finally, after dragging on while entering the melancholy chamber, Skoll bowed down and presented himself.

"Your royal highness…," he began, lowering his claws and head onto the floor, showing his humbleness towards Pyra. "I have brought what you've asked for."

Skoll's massive and muscular body stood up, and he snatched up Pops. Pops cried out when the werewolf picked his slim and jolly body up off of the floor as if he weighed five pounds.

Skoll stuck Pops out in front of him as if he were some kind of trophy someone was showing off to their friends.

"…_Bring him closer."_ ordered a female voice.

The treacherous wolf hurled Pops forward.

"Oh my!..._d'oof!_" He cried out as he landed face-first into the stony, carpeted floor. The overly-ecstatic lolli-man pushed himself up off the floor and shook his orbicular head. He rubbed his eyes and he gazed forward, his eyes landing on the queen.

Queen Pyra did _**not**_ look friendly. _At all. _

_She had a very solemn and serious look on her face, accompanied by two large, black bags hanging underneath her eyes. Her hair and eyebrows were, literally, made out of fire and flames. Her hair was extremely long and went down to her spine and spread out onto her shoulders as well. The flames slithering and dancing as they went down her body. She wore a tiara on her forehead that served as a crown, with a shining, glistening ruby encrusted in its center with the silver holding it in place having been diligently crafted to appear like flames. Her dress was a bright-red color with a golden pendant in the shape of a roaring dragon with ruby-encrusted eyes sewed below her neck. She wore long, white evening gloves that went up to her elbows. The lower half of her dress had a jagged line type of design with the fabric made out of pure gold, almost appeared to be a golden lightning bolt around the thighs of her elegant dress. Underneath the dress, one could see a pair of white stocks and crimson high-heeled shoes on her feet. _

Pyra sat there, with her arms resting on her demonically-carved, dragon-shaped throne's armrests, staring at Pops with that solemn and somber expression pasted onto her face. To Pops, she didn't seem very old, probably in her mid-twenties, a little older than Mordecai and Rigby.

Queen Pyra leaned over a little, examining Pops more carefully. Her eyes traced the circular shape of his pink head. Pops blinked twice as he observed her inspecting his appearance and body like a car in a car dealership.

"I certainly hope I've brought you a good specimen, my queen. I'm sure he'll fit your requirements."

Pops arched his eyebrow when he heard this voice come from next to the queen's throne. He saw the glowing red eyes of his original kidnapper from the shadows, and the same person who demanded Skoll to bring him up here. Their face was obscured by the shadows of the room.

"Yes," declared the queen, leaning back into her glorious throne. "He fits my needs perfectly. I want it out of him. _Now!"_

What was "it"? What did Pops have that the wicked fire-queen wanted? Pops wobbly stood up and needed to ask some questions. He stood up straight and raised his hand mid-way, and asked, "Excuse me, but what do _I _have that you want? Is it money?"

Pops reached into his gray, khaki pockets and pulled out a handful of peppermint lollipops.

"Here! It's all I have!"

Queen Pyra, Skoll, and her mysterious and elusive personal apprentice just stared at Pops, not caring about his "offer". The queen turned her head towards the apprentice and stated, "Get the magicians. I've waited for this day for _too long!"_

The mysterious apprentice turned his head (Pops could see the unruly black tangles that served as his hair on his head as it turned around) and called out, "Tonto! Farfelu! Strambo! The queen summons you!"

Right at that moment, three voices of various tones in the background replied with, "Yes, our queen!" Pops arched his eyebrows as he observed three little creatures come scurrying out of the dark corners of the chamber.

They were all dressed the same, although in different colors. They wore what appeared to be wizard robes with capes wrapped around their faces. Their wizard hats engulfed pretty much their entire head. The collar of their capes and their hats hid their faces completely, except for a pair of lizard-like yellow eyes visible through the small slits. Their hands were a lime-green color, covered with scales and little black claws on their fingertips, and little traveler's shoes to match their wardrobe.

The one with the blue robe was Tonto, while the one in orange was Farfelu, and the one dressed in black was Strambo.

All three of these little wizards were servants of Queen Pyra, and like all her other servants, they feared her. They practiced a mixture of magic and science, and were often the scientists/magicians of Queen Pyra's castle.

They stepped forward in front of Pops, and they bowed down to Queen Pyra on all fours; palms and knees.

While still bowing their heads, Tonto spoke up. "Permission to lift up our heads, your majesty." Queen Pyra replied with, "You may."

Tonto picked up his head and stated, "What can we do you for, your highness?" The evil queen raised her arm and pointed a knife-like finger at Pops, who was confused as ever, tapping his finger tips against each other and his eyes flicking from left to right. "You know what I want from him."

All three little magicians stood up and declared, "Yes, Queen Pyra!" They all turned towards Pops, and jumped on him, shoving him to floor.

While on the floor, Pops cried out, "Excuse me, but what are you…hey, hey_! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaaaaa! Wait! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaaa! Please stop, that tickles! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaaaaaaaaah!"_

Tonto, Farfelu, and Strambo were holding Pops down, trying to get him on the floor in a certain position.

Finally, after kicking and non-stop laughing, they managed to rearrange him in the correct position.

"_Aaaaaa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaaa! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha….ah-ha….ha….ouch…ouch! __**OW!**__ Hey, that doesn't tickle! That __**hurts!**__"_

All three of them summoned magical chains made out of yellow electricity to wrap around Pops' ankles and wrists, and stretch out his arms and legs. They also summoned a dissecting table, also made from magical electricity, to strap him onto. For such little beings, they were stronger than they appeared to be. They threw him onto the electric table and the chains magically did what they were supposed to.

Pops looked from left to right frantically, trying to figure just what the heck was going on. The electric chains wrapped around his wrists and ankles rapidly. He just stared at all of them, wide-eyed and speechless as he lied there, all chained up. What were they going to do to him?

""Tear it out of him," demanded the queen from her throne, as she (almost hungrily) gazed at Pops.

The lolli-pop headed man blinked, confused by whatever was going on. Were they going to give him surgery? Why? What was wrong with him? He was beginning to get a little scared.

The three wizards exchanged nervous glances at each other, knowing that they had some news Pyra would most definitely not like. Both Tonto and Strambo turned to Farfelu, and nodded their heads.

"It's _your _turn to tell her news she doesn't want to hear!" whispered Strambo. Tonto nodded his head in agreement.

Farfelu shook his head, took a deep breath, and gulped. He shakily stepped forward to Queen Pyra, who by now, was giving him the evil eye, with her other eye twitching in rage that was starting to build up.

"Um, you see, my queen…my most powerful, majestic, glorious, merciful, beautiful, inspiring, radiant—"

"_What…is the matter_?" demanded Queen Pyra, her voice lowering to a dangerously snake-like whisper.

"This procedure…" The orange wizard paused for a moment, put his scaly hands together, and began playing with his thumbs in nervousness, "takes a while to actually do, at least, do it _right. _So…I'm afraid you're going to—"

"'_Going to have' to __**wait**__?"_ When she asked this, her hair seemed to glow brighter and the flames on them began to dance more furiously.

Farfelu shielded his face and began trembling violently like a leaf, fearing his queen's wrath. She could fry him to a crisp in a heartbeat, and that, for her, was being too generous.

When he didn't feel any flames burning his clothes and skin, the small orange wizard lowered his hands slowly and began talking again.

"I'm ah-ah-ah-afraid so, my queen," he said, trying to keep his voice steady. But then he brightened up a little and said, "But-but-but-but-but-but don't fret, your royal fiery-ness! We've learned new magical spells that can help us multiply!"

Farfelu turned around to gaze at Pops for a moment. The poor gentleman having a troubled look on his face as he overheard their bizarre conversation.

The wizard turned back around and stated, "This could reduce the time we have to spend making the right chemical mixtures, getting the right tools, and chanting the right words!"

Queen Pyra did not lose the somber and stern expression on her face. Farfelu blinked and said, "Let me show you!" He clapped his hands twice. The sounds of the claps echoed throughout her giant throne room, and out came four little wizards similar to Tonto, Strambo, and Farfelu, except they were all dressed in white.

"They will help us with the procedure! See, they've already started!"

One of the white wizards came rapidly waddling forward like a penguin carrying a large beaker filled with a liquid that had a mysterious blue tint to it.

"That particular plasma is vital to our experiment! And it's _rare_! Without it, we couldn't pull out what we need to from our test subject!" explained the orange-robed wizard as his clone waddled by Pyra and Farfelu.

The second he finished explaining what the plasma was needed for, the white clone stumbled.

"Whoa!" it cried out as it tripped over its own feet and let the beaker wobble dangerously from side to side in its green hands. Unfortunately, it tripped and fell onto the floor, letting the beaker shatter and rendering the blue plasma useless.

One second later, a horrible screaming sound was heard. The three wizards and Pops stared wide-eyed and in horror as they watched the clone on fire. The clone stood up, its body covered in large flames, and began running around in little circles, screaming as the fire chewed through its robe. This enraged the queen even more, so she stuck out her hand again, and another massive fire-ball shot out of her palm, knocking the clone on the floor, its screaming now ceasing as it stayed on the floor, twitching.

Even then, the queen shot another fireball at its lifeless body, and another one, and another still, until another one of the clones spoke up, crying out _"No! Stop! Please!"_

The queen merely turned her head, her eyes burning with rage, and gazed at the rebellious clone, and instantly, it burst into flames, leaving behind only a few tongues of flame to remain burning gently on the carpeted floor. She could also manipulate fire with her own mind.

Pops and the wizards just stood there, too terrified to make another move. The gentleman groundskeeper turned to the other clone, the one that had carried the beaker, and saw that it was now only a pile of ashes in the shape of its body.

Seething with fury and anger, she turned to Farfelu and demanded "_How long will this take_?"

Farfelu nervously opened his mouth and quietly replied with, "Uh…about a few hours?"

He saw the queen's fingers on the armrests of her throne, and she had began to squeeze them in aggravation. Her fingers began forming cracks on the throne, with smoke arising from her fingertips.

"Get to work!" she barked out, her voice shaking the entire throne room. For one second, nobody did anything, they just stood there shaking.

"…_**NOW!**__"_

The three wizards all gasped and sprinted out of there, preparing their magic spell books, scientific instruments, and snacks to eat to get ready to perform their elaborate experiment.

Skoll turned away and rubbed his eyes sleepily, not really surprised by any of her actions, since he had been one of her personal servants long enough to know what she was _really _like. He still feared her, but he knew her temper.

Her mysterious apprentice, by her side, had not moved an inch.

Pops stayed chained to that table, still amazed at what he had just saw.

"My," he stated, his round eyes wide and astonished, "Benson is _never_ that hard on Mordecai and Rigby. I'm sure he'd like this fire-lady…" he smiled a little and said, "I'm sure they'd be great friends!"

"_Shut your mouth!" _declared Skoll, zooming his face up to Pops, breathing gusts of air into his pink, jolly face.

Pops smiled a bit and said, "You seem cranky…maybe I should take you for a walk?" Skoll's eyes widened, and then he raised his claws, and uttered through gritted, blood-stained teeth, "Why you little…"

"Skoll!" yelled that authoritative apprentice, observing everything that was going on. _"What did I __**just**__ tell you?..."_

Skoll, immediately lowered his claws, backed away from Pops, and stated, "Sorry sir, I just—"

"_**Silence!**_ You are not to lay a finger on him until we are done with him. Is that understood?"

"….."

"_**Is that understood**__?"_

"Yes…"

Skoll began turning around and managed to sneak in a dirty glare at Pops, who was smiling as happily as ever, and he didn't hear Skoll grumbled under his breath, "When we're done…I'm tearing you to pieces _first…"_

Pops giggled a little, and he heard a strange wailing roar outside, almost like the sound of a whale's song out in the ocean, except it was more sinister. He arched his eyebrow and gazed out of the window, and he could've sworn he saw the shadowy silhouette of a pair of enormous bat wings go whooshing by outside.

Skoll stopped for a second, gazed out of that same window, and chuckled a little while saying, "I guess _Cinder_ liked the show today, eh…"

Pops stayed staring out of the window, as he heard the giant pair of wings slowly flapping and circling around the massive fire castle.

"What a strange sound," stated Pops to himself, "I wonder if it's a giant butterfly…"

_Author's Notes: So here, we were introduced to some of the antagonists of the story. What does Queen Pyra want with Pops? Will they hurt him? Probably. Will he be ok? Who knows. Please leave a review, thank you._


	5. The Sun is Setting

_Author's Notes: There is nothing to say here._

**Chapter Five: The Sun is Setting**

The muscular, lycanthropy-stricken servant of Queen Pyra stood there leaning against the brick wall; eyeing Pops making he sure was not making any plans or attempts to escape the magical chains.

Pops, however, wasn't even thinking about escaping. In fact, Pops wasn't even thinking at _all_. He was too busy dreamily gazing at a firefly that was flying around him, flickering with a blue-like color on its tail, like a light on a Christmas tree. Pops giggled in that goofy manner of his as the insect hovered in front of his pink, circular face.

Through the eyes of the firefly, there was a bunch of Pops' heads, all giggling at the same time as if it were watching several television screens playing at the same time.

The colorful firefly hovered closer to him, and surprisingly, a little mouse-like voice cried out, "Run away! This place is bad! _Really _bad!"

Pops arched his eyebrow, and began looking from left to right, and he asked, "Who said that?" The firefly responded with, "_I _did! You're in danger, buddy!" Pops looked in front of his nose, and saw the bug in front of him. "Ooh, hello!" exclaimed Pops, giving a cheeky smile at the firefly. "And what's _your _name?"

"I don't have one. Anyway, listen. You need to get away from here as fast as you can! They want your—"

"No name? That's terrible!" Pops frowned a bit and shook his head. The insect began to flicker in an agitated way. It _needed_ to give Pops this warning.

But then, the lollipop-headed man brightened up and declared, "I know! I'll call you Flicky!" The firefly rolled its eyes and stated, "Ok, fine. Whatever! Now hurry up and get out of here! This place isn't—"

"But why, Flicky?" asked Pops, tilting his head. The bug began flickering its tail-light furiously, and began screaming. _"THAT'S WHAT I'M TRYING TO TELL YOU! SHEESH! THEY…WANT...TO FORCIBLY TAKE…YOUR—"_

Skoll's furry, clawed hand came out of nowhere and crushed the blue firefly in his massive fist. Pops' face drooped and his pupils shrunk as he observed his new "friend" get crushed in the palm of the werewolf's hand like a grape.

Skoll opened his palm and stared at it, seeing the firefly all squished, its light flickering lifelessly. The lycanthrope rolled his yellowy eyes. "_Pfffffft._ Pests…annoying, aren't they?"

Skoll then tossed the insect into his mouth and ate it. Pops' face turned pale when he saw this. Skoll's eyes shifted to Pops, and he noticed his queasy expression. The wolf shrugged his colossal shoulders and answered to his expression. "What? It tastes like chicken."

From behind Skoll, Pops could hear the voices of the three little wizards that worked for the evil fire queen. He heard muffled screams and annoyed groans as they walked up the stairs, and…if he heard correctly, the sounds of blows and hits landing.

Suddenly, the three wizards marched through the door, carrying various large magic-spell books and beakers, along with bags of ineligibly-labeled potato chips. Farfelu lead the way, while Strambo and Tonto staggered along behind him, huffing and puffing as they carried the massive textbooks.

They dropped all their materials on a large table besides Pops that Skoll had placed there while they were coming up.

Farfelu lifted his hand and wiped the sweat off of his forehead with his forearm, and said, "Whew…well, we've got our stuff." The small, orange wizard turned to his queen and said, "Don't worry my queen; we'll got the job done soon."

Queen Pyra stared at him with her fiery, cold eyes, and she turned her head towards her loyal apprentice. The apprentice noticed this and he leaned over. She whispered something in his ear, and he nodded once while saying, "Yes, my queen."

The shadowy figure stood up and called out, "Skoll!" Skoll turned to the apprentice obscured by the darkness. "Queen Pyra wishes to go to the Chamber of Lament to mourn. She demands us to guard the entrance so she isn't disturbed."

The werewolf nodded, and he dashed over towards the queen and the servant. Before they left, the apprentice stared at the three wizards and Pops, and he declared, "If you three stooges are fooling around like idiots and not doing what you're supposed to be, I swear, I'm going to—"

"Oh, believe us sir," answered Strambo for the others. "We'll get the job! It'll be as easy as one, two…"

Strambo stopped. He had forgotten what came after the number two. He arched his eyebrow and turned to the other wizards.

"_Uh…what comes after 'two'?"_ He whispered to Tonto.

"'_C'." _replied the blue-robed wizard.

"Oh, that's right!" said Strambo while chuckling, "One, two, _C! _I was _way _off! How could I forget something so simple?"

The apprentice turned back to Pyra and whispered something to her. She nodded once, and the mysterious, secluded servant turned back to the three wizards. "We'll be back in a few hours. Do not waste the queen's time, or she'll have your _**heads**_!" He said, running the tip of his thumb across his throat, symbolizing death.

The three magicians gulped nervously. Then, Skoll, Pyra, and the apprentice vanished in a puff of flames. Pyra had teleported all of them up to the Chamber of Lament.

Now, the three wizards were left alone, to perform what they needed to do on Pops. Farfelu's eyes slowly swung from left to right, observing Strambo and Tonto simply staring at the spot and waving good-bye where the three villains were just a moment ago. He frowned angrily and slapped both of them across the back of their heads.

"Ow!" They both cried in unison, rubbing the sore spot on their heads.

"C'mon, you idiots!" The bossy orange wizard hissed, who most often times acted as their leader. "We have to get this job done!"

He turned to Tonto and said, "Quick, get me the magic-spell book." Tonto whirled around and sprinted to the table while calling out, "I'm on it!"

Farfelu then turned to Strambo.

"_What're you doing just standing around for!_" The rude orange wizard jammed his two reptilian fingers into the black-robed wizard's eyes, disciplining him gruffly. Strambo cried out in pain and rubbed his eyes. "Owie-owie-ow!"

"Go on and get the flashlight, dummy!" roared Farfelu.

Strambo turned around and sloppily began walking over to get the flashlight, but not without a swift kick at his posterior by Farfelu.

Tonto came trotting up to Farfelu, stuck the magical textbook out in front of him and said, "Here ya go, Farry. I got the spell-book you wanted!" Farfelu took the book from Tonto and rudely asked, "What do you want, a medal?" And then he raised the book with both hands and violently slammed it on Tonto's head.

"_Ow!_" cried Tonto, rubbing his cranium. He glared at Farfelu when he had his back turned, and made an angry _"MMMM!"_ sound with his fists shaking angrily.

Farfelu turned to Pops and said, "Don't worry, mister. We'll be real careful with ya." Pops arched his eyebrow at those words, and said, "But exactly do you want with—"

"Quick," called out Farfelu, cupping one hand around his mouth. "Get the anesthetic!" One of the clones dressed in the white robes came waddling up behind to Pops' head with a mallet. He raised it over its head, and pounded Pops head. Pops sat up straight with a goofy smile on his face, and he drunkenly muttered, "Lollipops and toothpaste…don't mix well with yogurt…" and he fell backwards, unconscious.

Farfelu turned to the clone and demanded, "What's the matter with you! We're supposed to be _careful _with him!" The orange wizard then grabbed the mallet from it, and slammed it on the clone's head. The clone ran away clutching its head.

Strambo came running up to Farfelu, sticking the flashlight out in front of him. "Here's that shiny light bulb on a stick you wanted," he said.

Farfelu grabbed it, leapt on top of the jolly lollipop-headed man's stomach, and began prying one of Pops' closed eyes open with his index finger and thumb. He shined it inside of Pops' pupil, and uttered, "Mmm-hmm." He then pried Pops mouth open, and he shined the light into his mouth and began gazing in there. "Mmm-hmm…this guy eats a lot of candy."

"How do you know?" asked the innocently-curious Tonto, tilting his head.

"This guy's mouth is a breeding-ground for cavities," stated the bossy little reptilian wizard, still inspecting inside Pops' mouth. "I mean, you'd think a guy dressed _this_ classy brushed every once in a while."

The orange wizard leapt off of Pops' table, and shut off the flashlight. "Gentleman," said Farfelu, putting the light into his pocket. "He's _ready!_"

"Mmm…no," said Tonto, shaking his head with his hand on his chin. "I think he's 'Pops'." Tonto reached for a golden little pocket watch that was dangling out of Pops' pocket. "At least, that's what it says on the back of this pocket-watch thingy."

Farfelu turned his head slowly to Tonto with an annoyed look on his face, and raised his fist ready to gruffly discipline him again, but Strambo cried out, "Farfelu, we gotta hurry and perform the spell!"

Farfelu stopped himself and turned to Strambo. "You know, for once, you're right."

Farfelu handed the book to Tonto and said, "Tonto, open up the page with the required magical spell." As the child-like mannered blue-robed wizard excitedly flipped through the pages, he cried, "Oh boy, magic time! This is my favorite part!"

He handed the book to Farfelu, and said, "Here, the spell is on this page." The orange wizard took it and skimmed the ancient, supernatural text on the book. He then slammed the book onto Strambo's chest, and then cracked all of his fingers.

"Alright boys," stated the orange-robed wizard. "Stand back, 'cause this _may _get icky...and sticky." Tonto and Strambo both took a step back, and eagerly watched on as Farfelu prepared his magical spell.

Farfelu put his hands together, closed his eyes, and began reciting the ancient text's words.

"_**Yehudah…Lev ben…Shlomo…Natan…ha…LEVI!"**_

Farfelu then stretched out his hands, and a large puff of smoke engulfed the trio for a brief moment. They all coughed and waved their hands around to get the nagging smoke out of the way. They all stared as it cleared up.

"_What…the…heck…?"_

Looks like there was a slight malfunction with their spell (no surprise there).

Instead of Pops lying down unconscious on the steel bed, there was a pink cupcake covered the red, blue, and green jellybeans, and with a cherry on top.

Farfelu's magic spell had accidentally turned Pops into a _pastry_. The orange-robed wizard just stayed staring at Pops (the cupcake) in confusion for a second, and muttered, "But…how…how did that…"

"Huh…looks like you performed the wrong spell." stated Strambo, scratching his head.

Tonto walked up to the table and brightened up. "Hey, look fellas! A cupcake!"

Tonto happily reached over and snatched up Pops. He pulled down the collar of his cape around the lower half of his face, revealing his lizard-like appearance, and proceeded to plop it into his mouth.

But Farfelu cried out, "Hey!" and he snatched Cupcake-Pops from him. "You _idiot!_ That's our test subject! Do you have _any _idea what the queen would do to us if you-"

"Uh…hey Farfelu?" He heard Strambo's voice say from behind him. "What?" growled Farfelu, turning around with his fists clenched.

Strambo pointed at the top of the page, to reveal that it said:

"_**Magical pastry spell".**_

Farfelu slowly turned around with a nasty glare on his face to Tonto, who was pulling the cape up over his face again. Farfelu grabbed the book from Strambo and asked in a friendly, polite voice, "Hey Tonto, would you mind telling me what this word here says?"

Tonto tilted his head and said, "Well, I don't know how to read that well…" he then brightened up and said, "But, ok!"

"See? This word right here…" said Farfelu, holding up the large book and pointing to a random word.

"Uh, I can't really see it from there."

Farfelu rolled his yellow eyes and said, "Then come _closer_….a little closer…a _liiiiiitle_ closer….just a little more…"

Tonto stopped getting closer and he gazed up at Farfelu. "Hey, you're not gonna slam that book shut on on my nose, are you? Because, you know, that hurts. Like, a _lot._"

"What? _Me? _No, of course not!" replied the orange wizard, smiling a bit. "Whatever gave you _that _idea?" Tonto shrugged and he leaned in all the way close, until his nose was only inches away from the book's page.

At that moment, Farfelu brought his fist down and slammed it on Tonto's head. Tonto groaned and rubbed the spot on his head. And _then_, Farfelu opened up the book and slammed it shut on the blue wizard's nose.

"_**Ow-ow-ow! Farfelu! Stop! Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow!" **_shrieked__Tonto, as Farfelu pressed the covers tighter and tighter. He then lessened his pressure on the covers, and the childish wizard stumbled backwards clutching his aching nose.

Strambo began giggling at the sight of blue-robed wizard rubbing his nose. "Hee-hee-hee-hee…_**Ow!"**_

Farfelu instantly shut him right up with a quick bop on the nose with the back of his scaly fist. The orange-robed wizard began grumbling under his breath and shuffling through the pages of the magical textbook.

Finally, after he thought he found the correct spell, he memorized the text and slammed the book shut, and then he shoved it into Tonto's face.

He said to the both of them, "Now stand back, you idiots! This is it!" He did the same things he did as with the previous spell, and this time he uttered:

"**Kono uta…chotto…baka wa…wake ga…WAKARANAI!"**

Again, he stretched his arms out in front of him as soon as he finished reciting those magical words, and another puff of smoke engulfed them and the cupcake. The three wizard stooges stood there, excitedly waiting for the smoke to clear to see if Farfelu's magical spell was a success.

…It wasn't.

All six of their eyes widened in disbelief at what they saw. What was standing before them was Pops…not in his "Regular" form.

Instead of Pops laying unconscious on his steel bad as he was a moment ago before he became a cupcake, he wasn't there. In his place, now, was a little puppy dog. It seems Farfelu had messed up and turned Pops into a cute little puppy.

He was soundly asleep, with his paws covering his nose a little and his tail in the air, holding still. He had a light pinkish fur, similar to Pops "human" skin tone, and a few black spots of various shapes and sizes on his back. He had little ears that dropped the sides of his circular head, and the fur around his mouth was a milky white color, as were his paws and the tip of his tail. In addition to its "cuteness" the Pops-puppy also had a miniature black top hat on its head, and a white, handle-bar moustache on the tip of its wet little black nose.

Farfelu turned to Strambo, and then he turned to Tonto, and then he looked back at Pops. The puppy's paw began to twitch a little, and he raised his head, and he yawned. His tail slowly began wagging happily, and puppy-Pops opened his big, watery, and soulful eyes. He stared up at the three wizards, and he barked happily.

"_Ruff-ruff!" _barked the little pink puppy as his tongue hung out and his white-tipped tail wagged rapidly from left to right.

"Ok…something isn't right here…" Farfelu snatched the magical spell book from Tonto and he re-read the spell. It seemed right, and he had done it correctly since it did what it needed to. So why were they not getting the result they wanted?

"I just don't get it," declared Farfelu, turning the pages and then closing the book shut, "I mean, I can't find the correct spell _anywhere! _You'd think that this book would have…"

While he was speaking, he was gazing at the cover of the spell book. And there, in golden, large letters, the title of the book was, "_Pastry and Puppy spells for dummies"._

It seems as though Tonto, in all his stupidity and silliness, had grabbed the wrong spell-book, which was driving the wizards in a wild goose chase.

Farfelu angrily flared his nostrils and slowly turned his head to Tonto, who was goofily waving at Pops the puppy.

Tonto felt a tap on his shoulder, and he turned around, only to have the orange-robed wizard jam his fingers into both of his eyes, causing Tonto to let out a high-pitched yelp.

"You _shank_," growled Farfelu through gritted teeth. "You got me the wrong spell book! _Now _look at you made me do!" He hissed, pointing a knife-like index finger at the joyful little puppy on the steel bed, happily tilting his head and his tail still wagging furiously.

Tonto's bright yellow eyes swung over to Pops, and then he turned back to Farfelu. "But at least you don't have to walk or feed him." The silly wizard put a scaly hand to his chin and uttered, "I sure hope he's house-broken though…"

Farfelu shook his head and forcefully slapped Tonto across the face. "Ow, that _smarts_!" cried Tonto, rubbing the sore spot on his cheek.

The bossy wizard was just about to utter something else when Strambo's voice interrupted him.

"Hey fellas! _Look!_" cried out the wizard in the black robe while pointing at puppy-Pops beginning to run away. "S'runnin' away!"

Pops began sprinting away on all fours, jovially dashing out of Queen Pyra's throne room. Farfelu turned to Tonto.

"It's _your _fault he's like this," he snarled. "_You _go get him!" And then, Farfelu slapped Tonto across the back of the head.

Tonto scrambled while holding the sore spot on the back of his and chasing after Pops out the door.

"Yeah, go get 'em!" added Strambo in an authoritative tone of voice. Farfelu turned his head only half-way with a nasty glare on his face, and that was enough to give Strambo the message.

"Uh…heh-heh…don't worry," Strambo said, walking towards the direction Pops and Tonto had sped off to. "I'm gonna help him."

**Puppy-Pops scampered into the castle's kitchen, excitedly looking around, exploring his bizarre surroundings.**

The pink little puppy slowly trotted through the gloomy, dark kitchen, gazing up at the silverware and large oven in the center of the room. It peered into the oven's door, gazing at the flames as they danced on the charcoal inside.

Pops then gazed at a few drawers on a kitchen's counter. He scurried over to it and opened it up by leaping and grabbing its handle with his teeth. He began rummaging through the forks, spoons, and knives with his little paws, making a mess of things.

While searching through the drawers, however, the curious little pup heard Tonto's voice calling out, "Here, puppy-puppy-puppy! Come to uncle Tonto!" and whistling for it. He lifted his head from out of the drawer, and whimpered as he heard the goofy, short wizard coming closer.

Pops sprang out of the drawer and dove underneath the refrigerator. Puppy-Pops' tail lowered to the floor and he covered his round, soulful eyes with his paws while trembling nervously.

Tonto shoved the door open and his reptilian eyes slowly scanned the grimy kitchen from left to right at the doorway. He stepped inside and he called out, "Here, puppy! Don't worry, we aren't gonna hurt you! That's animal abuse. We're just gonna turn you back into a human…and _then _we're gonna hurt you!"

The silly wizard slowly crept through the kitchen, listening for any suspicious noises or sudden movements. Pops slowly moved his paws away from his eyes, and he could see the wizard's shoes go walking on by slowly.

The little pup's eyes swung over to the doorway, which was wide open, and was just about to make a desperate exit, until he heard Strambo's voice come sailing in saying, "_Hey Tonto, you need any help? Wait a minute, what am I saying? Of course you do, I'm coming in!"_

The little top hat wearing puppy stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the lower-half of Strambo's black robe standing at the doorway.

Pops began waving his tail frantically in nervousness, knowing now that the danger had just doubled.

"Have you found that dog yet?" he heard Strambo ask Tonto.

"Nuh-uh. I think he's playing hide-and-seek. I hate that game. Why do _I _always have to be the seeker?_"_

"Well, with a face like _yours, _I'd hide without even playing."

"…Are you calling me fat?"

"No."

"Oh, ok then. Just don't call me 'fat'."

"Ok, so you check the corners and underneath stuff, and I'll check the oven."

Pops gulped and got even more afraid. It appears as though his chances of being found just increased. What was he to do now?

He heard Strambo march over to the large oven at the end of the kitchen, shut it off, opened it up, and peered inside, sticking nearly half of his body inside of it.

Tonto, on the other hand, was peeking inside of a cookie jar "looking" for Pops. He put it back down when he couldn't find Pops in there, and he got down and peered into a mouse hole. Again, Pops wasn't in there.

Tonto grumbled and crossed his arms grumpily. "_Mmmm!_ I can't find this dog _anywhere!" _Strambo, while still inside the oven, replied with, "_Don't worry, just keep looking! It's not like dogs are that smart, anyway."_

Pops gazed at Strambo while still in that oven. As he did, his brain suddenly hatched an idea. Pops bared his pointy little canine teeth and growled. He sprinted out from beneath the fridge, and he bit Strambo on the bottom as hard as he possibly could.

Strambo's "**FUUUUUUUUU-!" **rattled the entire kitchen. Pops instantly removed his teeth from his posterior, and Strambo was stuck inside the oven. Thinking quickly, Pops used his head (literally) to slam the oven's door shut.

The pink little puppy then leapt on top of the oven and he slammed his head against the _Holy crap, what are you eating that needs to be __**this**__ hot?_ labeled button.

The instant he did, the oven hissed and a roaring fire could be seen from the little window inside of it. All one could hear is, along with the roars and hisses of the fire, was Strambo screaming.

"_**AAAAAAAAAAHHH!"**_

Using this moment to his advantage, Pops sprinted out of there as fast as he could. Tonto, however, ran up to the oven, and yelled, "Strambo! This isn't the time to be cooking! What're you doing in there?"

"_**YEEEEEEOOOOOOWWW!" **_was Strambo's response.

"What? You're saying that that pup _put_ you in there?"

"_**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"**_

"Wow, that thing is smart! Well, do you want me to get you out of there?"

"_**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!"**_

Tonto arched his eyebrow at his response, and he crossed his arms in an offended manner. "…Well, you don't have to get pushy about it."

"**OOOH-OW! NRRRGH, SON OF A-YOW! AAAAAARGH!"**

"Say you're sorry..."

"_**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGGGH!"**_

"…See? That wasn't so hard, was it?" Tonto then strode over to the oven where Strambo was being cooked alive, and he wrapped his short arms around it in a friendly hug. "I forgive you, buddy."

"_**YEEEEEEEOOOOOWWWW!" **_

**Meanwhile, Pops had scurried upstairs, wondering if he had escaped his chasers. He gazed backwards, noticing that no one was following him.**

The Puppy sighed and calmed down a bit, and continued to explore his surroundings. This time, however, he seems to have stumbled into some kind of bizarre bedroom.

It was Tonto's room.

Pops gazed at all the strange beakers and bottles filled with bizarre liquids and dead arachnids. He noticed his bed covers, which were designed with a strange black-and-white checkered pattern. Pops tilted his head in confusion as he noticed all of these weird things around him.

But then, his big, soulful eyes landed on something that appeared particularly interesting. On a table, right next to the bed, was a type of stuffed animal. It looked as if it had some kind of "special treatment", since everything else seemed as if it were simply thrown around and treated without much care.

The stuffed animal appeared to be a bear with a yellow ribbon tied around its neck with a cane in one of its paws and a top hot on its head.

The pink puppy wagged his tail excitedly, and he began climbing the bed to get to the bear. Little did he know that this stuffed animal was Tonto's most prized possession, and he cared for it very much. But he was going to be in for a very, very rude awakening…

**Strambo had left to the bathroom to tend to his wounds, so Tonto was on his own again to search for Pops.**

Tonto carefully marched through the narrow hallways of the castle, listening for any sounds or traces of Pops in the area.

"Hmmmm," said Tonto as he quietly tiptoed through the hall. "Maybe he's in one of our rooms. I'd better go check."

Tonto flattened himself against the wall stealthily, like James Bond, and slowly made his way towards the door to his room. He peeked inside, and he and noticed that Pops wasn't around. He stepped inside, and quietly began searching around.

And that's when he noticed it…

Bits of stuffing and fur were scattered all around the floor, as if some kind of stuffed animal massacring had just occurred. He arched his eyebrow, and then his eyes shifted to his stuffed teddy bear.

It wasn't there. A chill slithered down Tonto's spine, and his pupils shrunk with terror. His eyes began flicking from left to right, and a light sweat began trickling down the sides of his scaly face.

"_**NOOOOOOOOOOO!**__" _he cried as he began flipping over his bed and covers, only to find more bits of stuffing and clumps of fabric savagely torn apart. "_**MISTER BEAR!**_ _**HE'S GOOOOOOOONE!**_"

Where could his precious stuffed animal have gone? He began thinking unwanted thoughts.

"_**Ok…ok, I can't breathe right now…**_" the blue-robed wizard said, with a hand on his chest and a handful of his cloak in it.

And that's when he heard it. He heard a faint growling coming from behind his closet, as if there were some kind of animal in there eating something. Tonto, while still panting heavily, arched his eyebrow and slowly stood up.

He shakily approached the closet door, not knowing to expect. His trail leading up to the door was pieces and limbs of a stuffed animal. As he drew nearer to the door, his heart began racing and his hands began trembling as they reached for the door.

He slowly turned it, almost taking an eternity to turn around all the way, and he stared down at the horrible sight below.

Puppy-Pops had Mister Bear's severed head in between his teeth, with cotton flowing out of the tear in the neck. The bear's body was torn to shreds and arms and legs had been chewed off of it. Pops shook his head violently, furiously shaking out the remaining cotton inside of Mister Bear's brain. When the little pink puppy heard the door open, he innocently gazed up with the plushie sti

Tonto just stared for a second, with his eyes bloodshot and wide…

_**Meanwhile, Strambo had finished fixing his burns and wounds, and Farfelu was still looking around for Pops downstairs, when they both heard Tonto yell,**_

"_**NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"**_

Farfelu and Strambo dashed as fast as they possibly up the stairs and into Tonto's room. And they couldn't believe what they saw.

Tonto was huddled in a corner in a fetal position, rocking back and forth with Mister Bear's head in one hand, and stroking it with the other. His veiny, bloodshot eyes were wide and flickering from left to right, while breathing loudly and heavily.

"Whoa, what a _freak!_" commented Strambo. Farfelu nodded his head, and when he did, he thought he saw something in the corner of his eye. He turned his head, only to see Pops running down a hallway.

"Hey, there it goes!" hollered Farfelu, pointing at it. He whirled around and slapped Strambo's face. "What're you waiting for!" he scolded angrily. "We gotta go catch him!" And with that, Farfelu sped off in Puppy-Pops' direction.

Strambo shook his head and grumbled underneath his breath. While rubbing the sore spot on his cheek, he uttered, "Why that lousy, good for nothing, bossy son of a…" But then Strambo noticed something. He noticed _you _just staring at him, laughing while he was getting slapped, kicked, and bitten constantly.

He clenched his fists and he pointed a finger at you. _"Hey….yeah, __**you!**__ The one with the face!" _He approached your computer screen and began ranting while tapping the screen with his clawed finger.

"_I'm down here busting my ass while you sit on yours watching me getting kicked and burned and slapped, while all you're doing is laughing and commenting on how…hey! Hey, where do you think __**you're**__ going! Don't run away! What're you..."_

**Farfelu was running down ("Hey!") the castle corridors, trying to catch ("Come back here!") up to Pops ("I'm not finished ranting about you!") to prevent the pup from disturbing **_**("DAAAAAAAAAMN!")**_ **Queen Pyra while she was in mourning.**

"Come back here, you…!" snarled Farfelu as he chased Pops up and down the corridors of the fire castle with his stubby arms outstretched in front of him. Pops' turned his head, staring at the desperate orange-robed wizard chasing after him while uttering curse words underneath his breath.

Unfortunately for Farfelu, he tripped on his own feet while running, and he began to stumble all over the place.

"_Holy crap, this wasn't supposed to happen_!" he cried, as he took those final, drunken steps right before slamming his teeth onto the hard, cement floor.

Pops looked back at Farfelu on the floor, face-first with his arms outstretched like a bird's wings. The pink little puppy barked a "cheerful" bark as he mockingly sped down the halls. However, his little victory bark was cut short by Strambo suddenly leaping out of the shadows, with his arms outstretched in front of him as if he were imitating a ghost, and while screaming, "_Heeeeere's Strambo_!" like Jack Nicholson in _The Shining_.

Pops yelped, screeched to a halt with eyes wide with fear, and he whirled his furry little pink body around and sprinted into a nearby closet. Strambo landed face-first like Farfelu did, but he instantly got back up on his feet and followed Pops inside.

The black-robed wizard slammed the door shut behind him, and all that could be heard on the outside were the sounds of punches landing, items being thrown all around and broken, Pops yelping, and Strambo screaming out wrestling and fighting vernacular, such as "Take this! And that! And some of this too! Eat it! Merry Christmas! Hi-yah! Huuuh! Take that! I gotcha' now!"

Seconds later, the closet door violently swung open, and Strambo went flying out of the closet with a black eye and a bloody nose, being severely beaten up by Pops (somehow). Strambo groaned while on the floor, as Pops made his hasty retreat.

Just as the little pink pup was half-way down the hall, a large, swirling portal appeared in front of Pops, again, making him halt.

Tonto stepped through it, appearing deranged and angry. The silly wizard pointed at the lollipop-pup and roared, "You ripped off Mister Bear's head and ate it like a jelly-bean! Now I'm gonna rip something off of _you!" _

The blue-robed wizard dashed forward, and he snatched up Pops. The little puppy wiggled and writhed in the wizard's scaly hands.

Farfelu and Strambo came running towards Tonto, and they all applauded as he held Pops in his hands. Finally, after many tears, broken bones, and slaps to the faces, they had caught Pops. Nothing could spoil their moment of glory…

That is, until Pops (the _real _Pops) shoved the door open and began walking towards the exit of the hallway.

The three wizards all turned around, and gasped. 

"Hey, Pops, what're you doing! You're not supposed to come out yet! This isn't your chapter!" scolded Farfelu. Pops turned to him, smiled, and giggled in that awkward way he does. "Oh you three! Didn't you hear? We're being shut down!"

"'Shut down'? What do you mean?" interrogated Strambo, adjusting his wizard's hat. "Yes, "began Pops, nodding his head. "It seems that our production company has decided to cancel us. "

"What!" cried out Tonto, still holding that pink puppy. "Why?"

Pops simply shrugged, and began heading for the exit once again. All three wizards exchanged confused glances, and cameramen and staff members who were filming the entire scenes of the story began walking away…

_**Mordecai and Rigby, meanwhile, were down in the town, as they had just heard this strange news… **_

"Man," declared Mordecai, as they exited the Outcast Town set, and headed towards their car. "This really blows. I can't believe this happened."

The exit "vanishing" effect was simply a trick, making the camera point to a different location but appearing similarly.

"I know," added Rigby, rolling his eyes. "I memorized that whole stupid script for _nothing. _I mean, I could've just stayed home and played Pac-Man!"

All the outcast citizens, Alucard, the Bruiser, the blue unicorn, the snail, Waylon, Queen Pyra, Skoll, Cinder (who is a giant dragon made out of the night sky), the three wizards, and all the other wacky citizens of Outcast Town all marched out of the town gates, angry at this weird situation that had just happened…

_**Mordecai and Rigby were now walking down the middle of the road on a lonely highway, with the sun slowly rising on the horizon. **_

"You know, I don't get why our story just got cancelled like that. I mean, it's not like we were bad actors." stated Mordecai, with an annoyed look on his face.

"Oh, Mordecai," said Pops, never losing that happy smile on his face. "We had no control over it."

"Yeah, but look at this," Rigby said, pointing to the sun rising, causing the pre-dawn sky to slowly wither away. "This is the stupidest ending ever!"

Mordecai and Rigby groaned in annoyance. Pops simply stayed grinning as he stared at the sun rise. As they walked along further and further down the road, Rigby broke the silence.

"Hey Mordecai, you know what I just remembered?"

"What? That you have no life?"

"No," replied Rigby, rolling his eyes. "I'm still _'it'_ from a game of tag I had back in pre-school." He reached over and tapped Mordecai' wing. "You're it!"

Mordecai reached and poked Rigby on the shoulder. "You're it."

"You're it!"

"You're it."

"No, _you're_ it!"

"No, _you_ are!

"Ah…" sighed Pops, as he walked down the road as his, Mordecai, and Rigby's silhouettes vanished into the light. "Isn't it _nice_ to be among turds?"

_**Author's (Final) Notes: **__A bit of a strange ending, isn't it? Well, I'm afraid it has to be. You see, I'm going to head off to college very soon, and I'm probably never going to be able to work on this story (or any story) anymore. Which is a shame, because I felt this story was going to be one of my best ones. I'm very sorry to those of you who added this story to your Alerts list, but I'm afraid the story ends here. This was going to be an adventure filled with action, comedy & humor, and lots of weirdness. Sorry to say, this story will not be updated anymore. It's over. _

_Also, I'm not going to write stories on fanfiction dot net anymore. I don't have the time to do that. It's been a fun four years writing stories for this site, but it's time to say good-bye. Many thanks to those who reviewed my stories this whole time, they were greatly appreciated. I wish you guys the best of luck in your futures, and thanks to fanfiction dot net for giving me the ability to become a better writer. _

_Again, many thank yous, and good-bye. =|_


End file.
